Arikil Oraal

While watching the movie Arikil Oraal, you will occasionally get a thriller feel; but the unconvinced mind will definitely wait for something special in the climax to impress you. What really missing in this Sunil Ibrahim movie is definitely that climax to cover up all the whys and hows the audience will have throughout its narrative. More than thrill and fear, the movie creates a kind of curiosity among its viewers to know the reason behind the unbelievable.

Siddharth works in an advertising company in Bangalore and he has been transferred to the company’s Kochi office. In Kochi he has his girlfriend Veena. Icha is Veena’s friend in Kochi and on his arrival at Kochi, Siddharth meets Icha. As Siddharth wasn’t able to find a place for his accommodation, he moves in with Icha for a few days. Some unbelievable events that happen around these three people in the coming days are what the movie dealing with.

Much like his first film Chapters, here also Sunil Ibrahim manages to choose an interesting topic to keep us interested in the movie. But the obsession idea wasn’t really a convincing one as it couldn’t properly answer all the questions and exaggerations we see on screen. The reason why we all could enjoy Ganga’s transformation to Nagavally was because the movie was able to explain and convince us about the backdrop of the character. Here when we finally solve the mystery, the reasons are quite brittle. Apart from the interval punch and some interesting anxious moments in second half, the screenplay doesn’t really go after something refreshing and the slowness in each sequence takes it away from the thriller genre.

In the making, Sunil Ibrahim has tried his best to keep the frames fresh to give it that mysterious feel and up to a level he was successful. The flaws I felt was in squeezing out the acting skills from the actors and also in the screenplay. The screenplay doesn’t invest much time in establishing a bonding between these three important protagonists and because of that; the so called “shock” appears less shocking. Considering the runtime of less than two hours, they could have gone for some sequences to show the friendship of the main leads. The dialogs are occasionally cool. Cinematography is pleasing. Music and background score from Gopi Sundar are ok.

In the performance side, the characters never really challenged these actors. Nivin Pauly could have performed better in those hyper scenes. Indrajith is comfortable in his role and Remya Nambeesan doesn’t have much to do with her character. Rest of the cast including Lena, Prathap Pothan, Riya Saira, Shalin etc has done their part.

Overall, it’s a fresh theme that couldn’t become a totally refreshing experience. My rating is a generous 2.5/5. The cliché review phrase of “keep your expectations low” may work for you. After watching the movie, the chances of you having the same feeling Prathap Pothan’s character feels after hearing the name “Icha” is there for sure.