There was one scene in the movie Ottam where a goon starts to talk profound stuff about life and starts to compare it as a running race. Our depressed hero suddenly gets an energy hearing that banal speech and the visuals of him getting self-awakening was so bizarre that I looked at the guy who was sitting two seats away from me in the largely empty theater and I found him also looking at other people to see whether this scene was working for anyone in the audience. Ottam is a combination of lazy writing and flimsy filmmaking.
Abin is the hero of the story. Abin is that typical loser character who always loses opportunities. And the one person who always got the advantage of Abin’s lost opportunity is Vinay. The movie Ottam shows the luckless life of Abin and how he survives this depressive phase of life at the end.
There is an idea here that needed better writing and execution. The Abin Vinay connect is something that could create a story like the one we saw in Chappa Kurishu. But the writer Rajesh K Narayanan has no interest in showing both lives in an equal way. The character of Vinay is not even explored in the film and whatever bit we see of him in the film was absolutely tacky. Scenes need relevance in a movie. There are plenty of scenes in the movie that are just created for the sake of having a comedy scene or emotional scene that doesn’t do any good to the film. In one sequence they try to recreate a good comedy scene from action hero Biju and fails miserably. The annoying part is that they are not trying to conclude the scene. The scene just goes on and on to become an emotional sequence between the Aashan and the apprentices. This aimlessness in every scene makes the whole story look ridiculous.
Nandu Anand is trying his best to create empathy in our minds for Abin. But the ridiculous writing isn’t helping him in any way. Roshan Ullas as Vinay has nothing to do here as an actor. Alencier Lopez plays a typical drunkard. Thezni Khan is the writer’s tool to bitch about women. There is a track involving actors like Rohini and Kalabhavan Shajon which features Chavittunadakam and God knows the relevance of that in this movie. Rajesh Sharma should learn how to calm down. Manikandan R Achari is there to give everyone a bad memory about Kureepuzha Sreekumar’s poems.
In one scene our hero is late for college admission as he had to help a pregnant woman and her husband to reach the hospital. And when he is about to leave the hospital, the husband forces him to stay back as a backup for blood requirement and the guy doesn’t have the common sense to tell them that he can’t stay. Almost all the scenes written here to make the hero look like a victim of helpless situations is similar to this one and they all look dumb on screen. There are several subplots in the movie that has got no real importance when you look at the whole film. And the way the movie ended was also a nonsensical twist which will make you ask the makers “what are you trying to communicate?” The technical aspects like cinematography, music, and editing are on the tackier side.
Ottam is just two hours long and yet I found myself looking at the watch every 10 minutes. Director Zam only enhances the mediocrity of this badly written film. An idea becomes a story, the story becomes a script and the script becomes a movie. Ottam is stuck at the idea level.
Rating: 1/5
An idea becomes a story, the story becomes a script and the script becomes a movie. Ottam is stuck at the idea level.
Green: Recommended Content
Orange: The In-Between Ones
Red: Not Recommended
