CobertNeede

Trance has one of the best shot moments in the entirety of malayalam cinema. It's the scene where the film was at it's peak, only to hurdle down a never ending hill. It's not the 'perfect' in the story department, but they blew it apart technically. Every single shot in Trance is otherworldly. In a sense, even if you don't pay attention to the story, your money is gonna be well spent on the visuals alone. Amal Neerad knocked it out of the park with his godly cinematography. It's a masterclass combination is what it is. Amal Neerad-Anwar Rasheed combo was the best thing that happened to malayalam cinema this year. Anwar Rasheed has commandeered a film of a big canvas, he strutted it around long enough for the film to be 'perfect'. In a way, the screenplay dragged down a film that was worthy of becoming a classic in Malayalam cinema.

Fahadh was the limelight and he did his role justice. Viju Prasad/Joshua Calton was brought to life by his best performance in his career (personal opinion). Nazriya felt like an unneeded addition to an already spectacular cast. Soubin, Sreenath Bhasi, Vinayakan were all well utilised although having very limited screen time. Joju George appeared on screen for about 10 seconds and that is that. There was no more of Joju George in the film. I don't think there was even a name for his character. Chemban Vinod was just his persona yet again, a monotonous performance. Gautham Menon did good. Dileesh Pothan stood apart from the secondary characters as he received more screen time and dialogues as Avarachan.

Trance uses heavy display of colours. I couldn't have worded that better. Colours were popping out of nowhere. Don't watch Trance while high. You're just going to be more stoned after the film.

Trance fails hard in connecting the dots and summing up the storylines it started. Nazriya's character arc was pretty much screwed from the beginning. It almost felt that the 2nd half of the film was rushed, although that is not the case.

Trance is something that is going to be landmark in Malayalam cinema. Not because of how good it is, but because how beautiful it is. No malyalam film could compete with Trance in terms of it's visuals.

Ayyappan Nair, a senior police officer and Koshy Kurian, a retired havildar, lock horns in a situation made to go ugly. The film is almost literally 3 hours of dog fight between Ayyappan and Koshy, leading to a abrupt, divisive climax.

Ayyappanum Koshiyum is a tough nut to crack. Mainly because the film can become a commercial entertainer to many while still being bound to the unconventional style of plot advancing that has become a 'style' among new and veteran directors. It is by no means a bad film. It's great. But kind of falls apart when you think of what the director wanted to achieve with this movie. And he nearly does.

Prithviraj And Biju Menon were class apart. It was brutal,funny and refreshing to see two big names going in a dirty rag fight in the mud. Kudos to both. Renjith was above par as the gutsy dad of Koshy, coming off as quite corny in the later half performance. All other performances were good. Considering how Sachy used the 'realism meets fantastical scenarios' tool here, it was pretty surprising how good the secondary performances were.

Jakes Bejoy went all out in this film. His soundtrack and songs could've been the best thing the film had, of all the 'best' things. I wouldn't say it was Jake's best though. Ranam was quite beautiful and still stands as his defining work.

Sachy's offbeat mass entertainer will be a game changer for the industry. Truly a saturated industry in terms of 'mass' films, Ayyappanum Koshiyum is more than just refreshing.

Psycho, in many ways transcends the limits that Tamil cinema has imposed on many of their 'crime thrillers'. And for that, a moment of appreciation is more than deserving for Mysskin. But for where it should've excelled, it falls flat on its face. When you take a genre of film that is notoriously saturated, at least make sure that your work stands out story wise. Psycho borrows inspiration heavily from many, many western films. And in many ways, Mysskin has created a clone of those crime thrillers that you so love in Hollywood.

All the acting was meh. Nobody's acting particularly stood out. Nithya Menon was the best among the bunch, along with Rajkumar Pitchumani (the psycho), who delivered what was expected of a role like this. Udhayanidhi Stalin was pretty okay, not really dwelling deep into his character.

With the onslaught of crime thrillers in recent times, i really expected this to stand out.