Chuzhal review: A thrilling, must-watch road movie
A group of friends are on a road trip to attend a reception at a high-end venue. They are already late and are perplexed by the unruly driving of the local motorists. their joyous ride is intermittently marred by the reckless driving of others. and then out of the blue they encounter a “cliff edge” moment, when their car veers off the road in an attempt to avoid a collision.
chuzhal, written and directed by biju maani, premiered on neestream is a roller coaster of horror and road movie that moves viewers on and on until the title credits roll. the rhythm and liveliness is the highlight of the narrative. the characters are just ordinary young people we meet every day and their interactions are so original and fun that you would love to be part of the group.
The story unfolds in a non-linear pattern. those who pay more attention might catch the thrill of the suspense a little sooner. the big drama unfolds when the group of youngsters find a villa for the night. The caretaker, played by Jaffer Idukki, is a friendly and helpful host, always eager to make them comfortable.
Stepping away from the conventional horror suspense that is usually tagged with creepy music, spooky and white-robed apparitions, smoking zombies or goblins, chuzhal presents a different norm. Instead of horrifying, events excite and heighten curiosity.
when the narrative shifts to an interlude of unfortunate misery, we tend to share the pains of the characters who sustain it.
However, by making the horror scenes a bit more terrifying and cutting down on certain long sequences, the film could have been taken up another notch. however, the pack has enough fuel to grab you.
The performance of actors such as Jaffer Idukki, R J Nilja, Abin Mary, Sanju Prabhakar, Ghazal Ahamed and Sreenath Gopinath; hesham abdul wahab’s music, sajid nazer’s camera that follows the path and emotions of the characters, sound design to sum up the theme and its emotion come together to conjure up the suspense of the drama.
The film weaves together road scrapes, youthful vigour, illness and horror as its salient features while also driving home a point that anyone behind wheels on the street needs to keep in mind.
(the movie is available on neestream)
