Kaly, the new thriller directed by Najeem Koya is a movie that looks exciting at many places. The second half is the key area of this movie and in that part the movie does manage to keep us speculating about the consequences. But the lack of conviction towards the end and the elaborate time they took to establish the characters reduces the charm of the movie, making it an average experience on the whole.
A bunch of boys from lower middle class families is our main characters. The five member gang aspires to live the luxurious life and to achieve that they occasionally robbed used shoes and clothes. The movie Kaly is talking about one such robbery operation where the whole plan went wrong and the gang had to go through some tough times.
The script here is an uneven mix. The first half is a hasty attempt to establish the characters in a very typical way with a lot of racist jokes. Post interval the intrigue factor of this screenplay shoots up and I was really hopeful that this would become something special. After the arrival of Joju George’s SI Thilakan, Kaly takes a different shape altogether. The unevenness of the script wasn’t there for a big chunk of time in the second half. But unfortunately the film starts to fumble considerably when other characters starts to act smart and the twist in the tale was something that I predicted and wished wouldn’t happen.
The boys’ gang has names like Shebin Benson, Shalu Rahim, Indy and Anil K Reji. They were all kind of fine for the characters and with all the kind of parkour the characters are supposed to do, they were believable too. Aiswarya Suresh is a pretty face but her acting needs to be improved. Her sentimental scenes offered unintentional comedy for the viewers. Shammi Thilakan was good as Balan. Tiny Tom, Ezhupunna Baiju, Baburaj, Balaji Sharma etc. are there. One thing on which everyone would agree would be the fact that Joju George was fantastic as SI Thilakan. He is cunning, smart, loses cool occasionally and Joju makes him look so convincing on screen. Almost an hour in the second half, where the SI character is in command of the movie is the most exciting phase of Kaly.
Najeem Koya has opted a plot that looks peculiar and is really different from the kind of stories he has written. Like I already said, the first half is a little too elaborate when we finally look at the entire movie and know that the focus was largely on the developments that happen in the second half. The 163 minutes length of the movie makes that a bit too excruciating. The way humor and tension get mixed in the second half gives the movie a much needed push. But in the last 15 or 20 minutes the screenplay can’t pitch its twist in a way that compliments the buildup till that point. The cinematography was fine. The edits messes up most of the stunt sequences. Background score was good and the music was also fine.
On the whole Kaly is a watchable average movie. Because of Joju George this film becomes an exciting one in the second half and I think for that alone you can watch this movie for once.
Rating: 2.5/5
Because of Joju George this film becomes an exciting one in the second half and I think for that alone you can watch this movie for once.
Green: Recommended Content
Orange: The In-Between Ones
Red: Not Recommended
