10:30 am Local Call

The movie 10:30 am Local Call got a delayed release in many centers including my place. The feedback I got about the movie was positive and I was happy to hear it as the first movie of Manu Sudhakar was a disaster. But to my surprise the movie was a total let down and I can’t see any improvement in the director’s caliber, except for his idea to change the genre. Following the new trend of fatherly revenge and heroics, 10:30 am Local Call is one of the poorly written thriller in the recent times. The movie is watchable only for its pleasing visuals and catchy music.

The plot revolves around Alby, whose working in an automotive showroom in the sales. He is living a good life along with his sweet RJ wife Ann. One day he happens to see his ex girl friend Nimmy. Accidentally he happens to meet her from his showroom and the relationship starts again. The relationship causes issues in Nimmy’s married life and her husband divorces her. On the night when she was thrown out by her husband Alby comes for her help and the movie is basically about Alby’s days after this one night stand where he witnessed something brutal.

The problem with the movie is in its amateurish writing that just tries to exaggerate things to make it feel like a thriller. After watching the entire film, there will be a lot of questions in your mind like, why was Alby treated in such a humiliating way, if the hidden guy was so sure that he was innocent. In a scene the person who blackmails Alby through phone calls says that they could have done the job within seconds but they needed Alby. In my sensibility I still haven’t figured out why it was necessary to use Alby. Looking back at the story, the entire first half that had shades of an extra marital affair looked like a totally unnecessary one.

In the making, direction style showed some improvements when compared to Manu Sudhakar’s last film Sandwich but largely it wasn’t that great. The director fails to hide the flaws of the poorly written script. Like the scene in which Alby changes into a cool shade (where he is supposed to be in agony), when he goes to meet his police officer friend just didn’t suit the mood. The most bizarre part was the screen play that lacked freshness in treatment and maturity in dialogs. The structuring of the script wasn’t that surprising. To add mystery to the plot writer Arun Laal has given some so called cool dialogs to his key player (the caller) which at the end just didn’t make any sense. The dialogs are pretty much on the dramatic side and fail to make an impact on us. The cinematography of the movie is an impressive one. Edits are good and the music of Gopi Sunder also scores in the technical side. The art direction sadly looked bizarre.

On screen, Even though Lal has only very less screen time, in his limited period he has done the job perfectly. Actually he was the only actor in the movie who was able to cover the amateurishness of dialogs. Nishan fails big time on screen while Shritha wasn’t that impressive. Mridula Murali as Ann was bubbly and promises to be a good talent. Krishna was satisfactory. The rest of the cast including Anoop Chandran, Kailash and Manu Raj also did their less charming characters in a convincing manner.

Overall the movie fails to impress the audience as a thriller. If you have felt this as a gripping thriller, please watch more thrillers to improve your thinking caps. I am giving 1.5/5 for this piece of Art which tests sensibility. Gopi Sunder’s BG will not help you always.