Unmadham Movie Review: This psychological thriller movie in Malayalam gives a great performance by Kunchacko Boban. The movie starts off with an interesting mystery and a dark environment, but the last segment of the movie doesn’t quite live up to the rest of it.
Unmadham Story
Shelley, played by Kunchacko Boban, is a police officer who wants to be a film writer. In pursuit of his dream career, he decides to take some time off from policing in order to focus on filmmaking, but gets frustrated because his attempts keep failing. At this point, his wife Soumya (played by Lijomol Jose) is getting fed up with his indecisive life choices.
Eventually, Shelley goes back to working at the police department, but ends up being involved in some trouble and thus getting transferred to a new office.
Working in a new place, Shelley learns about an old case concerning the death of a young girl next to a railway line, which occurred several years ago. It had been regarded as an accidental death; however, now, the case file has gained some supernatural notoriety among the police officers.
Even worse, some officers believe that it brings nothing but bad luck.
Instead of avoiding the case, Shelley becomes fascinated with it and starts developing a screenplay based on it.
His ideas finally find recognition of one of filmmakers, but Shelley has a problem – he cannot finish the screenplay without knowing more about what actually happened.
Consequently, his investigations start influencing his mind and it makes the viewer question whether the supernatural events happen in reality or just occur in Shelley’s imagination.
Psychological Mystery Is the Film’s Biggest Strength
Shelley, performed by Kunchacko Boban, is a police officer dreaming of becoming a film writer. Trying to pursue his goal of changing the profession, Shelley decides to take some rest from his job in order to write movies, but he becomes frustrated as his efforts do not bring any results. By this time, Shelley’s wife, Soumya, played by Lijomol Jose, gets tired of Shelley’s unpredictable decisions.
Finally, Shelley decides to return to his work in police department, but he encounters some difficulties and, therefore, is forced to change office.
Arriving at a new place, Shelley becomes aware of the old case involving the death of a girl near the railway tracks several years ago. It was believed to be the accident, but the recent developments have transformed the case into something supernatural in the minds of the police officers.
The worse thing is that some of the officers think that it brings only bad luck.
Not afraid of the consequences, Shelley becomes interested in the case and starts writing a script for a movie connected with the murder.
However, Shelley finds an interested person for his script, but the problem is that he cannot finish it due to lack of information about the actual course of events.
As a result, Shelley’s investigations begin to influence his mind, making the audience wonder whether there are some supernatural things happening in real life or not.
Kunchacko Boban Delivers a Strong Performance
Kunchacko Boban shoulders most of the film.
The actor succeeds in depicting the character development of Shelley from an unhappy police officer and budding writer to someone who becomes obsessive and paranoid about his life.
Similarly, Lijomol Jose performs well as Soumya, the frustration of whom with Shelley does not seem artificial.
Cinematography by Arjun Sethu and background score by Johns Roy are some other contributing elements towards the sinister and unsettling mood of the film.
Where Unmadham Falls Short
However, unfortunately, it is at the point of moving to explain its main mystery where the movie fails.
The psychological tension that makes the beginning of the movie fascinating slowly transforms into an ordinary investigation.
In the end, the movie features some action and suspense, but it is not entirely linked to the already created atmosphere of the thriller.
Even more importantly, the explanation itself does not provide the kind of excitement one would expect to have after such a good start.
The movie makes people question the sanity of Shelley and the reality of the paranormal. With a different ending, it would have been a lot more intriguing.
However, the filmmakers chose to follow a common pattern.
Unmadham Review: Final Verdict
The movie is set up well enough and the performance by Kunchacko Boban is very good. Unmadham combines an old mystery, the mysterious case file and the policeman’s efforts to distinguish between what is real and what he imagines to create an entertaining psychological thriller through most of the time.
Unfortunately, the movie does not exploit its potential fully in the last act.
Overall, even with its flaws, Unmadham can be considered a good movie to watch for people who enjoy psychological and detective films in the Malayalam language.
Rating: 3/5