Abhyuham Malayalam Movie
As a crime drama, 'Abhyuham' firms up the fact that vivid presentation matters more than adoring the premise of a film. It imitates the trite template of cinematic investigation into a couple of murders, besides sprucing up the background with the cliched paraphernalia. The film, directed by Akhil Sreenivas, follows the life of a prisoner and his son, who struggles to take his father out from incarceration. Akhil's story has ample room for thrilling moments and potential for turning out to be a revenge plot. Yet, the possibility is sullied by sustaining ambiguity in the narration and treatment throughout the latter half of the film.
'Abhyuham' begins when rubber plantation worker Jayarajan, played by Ajmal Ameer, is about to get his passport in a few days. He is preparing himself to go abroad leaving his wife Anitha (Malvi Malhotra) and daughter in the village. One day, he gets a call from lawyer Manjari (Athmeeya) that his father Rajan (Jaffer Idukki), who has been in jail for the last 13 years, wants to meet him. Jayarajan is surprised as his father had never allowed him to meet him in jail.
While meeting his father, Jayarajan realises that Rajan was trapped in the case by Retired ADGP Joy Philip (Kottayam Nazeer). Now Jayarajan starts his journey to find out his father's friend Rajeev, who can be a witness in the case. But his search ends in Adimali Salim (Nandu). Meanwhile, Jayarajan is trapped in the murder of a police officer and later, he also becomes an accused in another murder. Investigative officer Dennis Joseph (Rahul Madhav) replaces Sub Inspector Sanal (John Kaippallil) to probe the murder case of the police officer. With no options left, Jayarajan wants to prove his innocence and avenge the enemies.
The scattered events barely give a convincing answer to a viewer and the proceedings are prolonged with accompaniments in vain. After a certain phase of the film, everything seems to be in a befuddled premise created by the wayward narration and slipshod editing. Writers Anand Radhakrishnan and Noufal Abdullah, who has also handled editing, obviously intend the hero's comeback with a bang to avenge his enemies. Instead of triggering an astounding effect here, the climax sequences rather fizzle out conveying the frivolous nature of the screenplay.
Ajmal gets his emotions perfect while portraying a man from the working class. But he struggles to exude a consistent performance when the tale enters into a grave mode. Jaffer Idukki garners the attention with his well-controlled sublime expressions and he stands out from the lot. The nefarious shades of Joy Philip are pretty safe in Kottayam Nazeer but the narration struggles to establish the character perfectly. The vital role of Manjari in the plot fails to register with an impact albeit the first half relatively gives an impressive embellishment to the character.
'Abhyuham' is a package mired in perplexity in terms of story-telling and it affects the decisive stages of the flick even as the hero's agony is neatly established at the outset. Moreover, emotions of characters are passively blended with the real conflict which leads to a lacklustre impact. It really makes one guess about the whole process that one witnessed.
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