Vadakkan Movie Review: A one-time watch for its technical brilliance and some genuinely eerie moments
Vadakkan Movie Review: Critics Rating: 3.0 stars, click to give your rating/review,: Paranormal investigator Ram returns to Kerala to crack the mysterious deaths of his ex-girlfriend’
Critic's Rating: 3.0/5
Vadakkan, directed by Sajeed A, arrives with high expectations, blending supernatural horror with a rich visual canvas rooted in North Malabar’s traditional art forms. With a strong technical team and an intriguing premise, the film promises much but delivers only in parts, leaving the audience both fascinated and frustrated.
The film starts off well, with world-renowned paranormal investigator Ram being called back to Kerala by his ex-girlfriend Megha. Her husband and his reality show crew have been mysteriously killed while filming in a dense forest. What begins as an investigation into these deaths soon spirals into something much larger, pulling Ram into a world of ancient secrets, spirits, and personal demons. The initial buildup is gripping, but the deeper the film goes, the more it loses itself in confusing subplots and half-baked ideas.
On the technical front, Vadakkan shines. With Resul Pookkutty’s atmospheric sound design, Keiko Nakahara’s visually stunning frames, and Bijibal’s haunting music, the film is a sensory delight. The eerie forest, the chilling silences, and the stunning Theyyam sequences create a mood that stays with the viewer. The visual effects too, handled by a combination of Indian and international teams, add polish to the paranormal elements.
However, all this technical brilliance cannot save the film from its weakest point, the script. Threads are left hanging, key events are never explained, and the characters themselves seem confused about what’s happening around them. The plot loses steam halfway through, falling back on the tired horror trope of a group of youngsters stuck in the forest, running and dying one after the other. What could have been a layered, culturally rich horror story ends up being a confused mix of half-explored ideas.
The performances from the cast are a mixed bag. Kishore Kumar, usually a dependable actor, starts off strong but loses grip as the narrative becomes more chaotic. His character, which could have been the emotional and investigative anchor, ends up directionless. Shruthy Menon delivers a sincere performance within the limited scope she is given, but her character feels underwritten. Among the supporting cast, Merin Philip, Gargi, Meenakshi, Arya, Kalesh, Siraj, and Greeshma do what is expected of them, though they are mostly reduced to stereotypical horror movie characters reacting to fear rather than driving the story forward.
The treatment of women in the film is another disappointment. Once again, women are portrayed as seductive, manipulative figures leading men to doom, a trope that has been done to death in folklore-inspired horror. It’s lazy writing that reduces the female characters to mere plot devices, robbing them of any real personality or agency.
The biggest letdown, though, is the way Theyyam is used. This powerful ritual art form, with its deep ties to history, caste, and social justice, is reduced to visual decoration. It becomes a flashy backdrop for the supernatural, stripped of its meaning and cultural significance. Films like Vadakkan have the potential to introduce audiences to the beauty and depth of Theyyam, but instead, it is used for aesthetic appeal, a missed opportunity and a disservice to the art form.
Despite all this, Vadakkan is not a complete washout. It is a one-time watch for its technical brilliance and some genuinely eerie moments. But with stronger writing and a deeper exploration of the socio-cultural balancing act rooted in the caste history that Theyyam represents, it could have been so much more.
- Anjana George
The film starts off well, with world-renowned paranormal investigator Ram being called back to Kerala by his ex-girlfriend Megha. Her husband and his reality show crew have been mysteriously killed while filming in a dense forest. What begins as an investigation into these deaths soon spirals into something much larger, pulling Ram into a world of ancient secrets, spirits, and personal demons. The initial buildup is gripping, but the deeper the film goes, the more it loses itself in confusing subplots and half-baked ideas.
On the technical front, Vadakkan shines. With Resul Pookkutty’s atmospheric sound design, Keiko Nakahara’s visually stunning frames, and Bijibal’s haunting music, the film is a sensory delight. The eerie forest, the chilling silences, and the stunning Theyyam sequences create a mood that stays with the viewer. The visual effects too, handled by a combination of Indian and international teams, add polish to the paranormal elements.
However, all this technical brilliance cannot save the film from its weakest point, the script. Threads are left hanging, key events are never explained, and the characters themselves seem confused about what’s happening around them. The plot loses steam halfway through, falling back on the tired horror trope of a group of youngsters stuck in the forest, running and dying one after the other. What could have been a layered, culturally rich horror story ends up being a confused mix of half-explored ideas.
The performances from the cast are a mixed bag. Kishore Kumar, usually a dependable actor, starts off strong but loses grip as the narrative becomes more chaotic. His character, which could have been the emotional and investigative anchor, ends up directionless. Shruthy Menon delivers a sincere performance within the limited scope she is given, but her character feels underwritten. Among the supporting cast, Merin Philip, Gargi, Meenakshi, Arya, Kalesh, Siraj, and Greeshma do what is expected of them, though they are mostly reduced to stereotypical horror movie characters reacting to fear rather than driving the story forward.
The treatment of women in the film is another disappointment. Once again, women are portrayed as seductive, manipulative figures leading men to doom, a trope that has been done to death in folklore-inspired horror. It’s lazy writing that reduces the female characters to mere plot devices, robbing them of any real personality or agency.
The biggest letdown, though, is the way Theyyam is used. This powerful ritual art form, with its deep ties to history, caste, and social justice, is reduced to visual decoration. It becomes a flashy backdrop for the supernatural, stripped of its meaning and cultural significance. Films like Vadakkan have the potential to introduce audiences to the beauty and depth of Theyyam, but instead, it is used for aesthetic appeal, a missed opportunity and a disservice to the art form.
Despite all this, Vadakkan is not a complete washout. It is a one-time watch for its technical brilliance and some genuinely eerie moments. But with stronger writing and a deeper exploration of the socio-cultural balancing act rooted in the caste history that Theyyam represents, it could have been so much more.
- Anjana George
