Bramayugam2024

Yet again proved that no other genres other than Horror will actually give a director/writer an opportunity to play with it using a folklore yet there’s a strong message regarding cycle of oppression that hits close to home, whether it was centuries ago or now. This is the beauty of this genre. In Bramayugam, Rahul Sadasivan exactly know how to use his magical wand and orchestrate it in a way that can be presented as a horror genre, but could be interpreted as something more psychological (Horror). “The age of madness” is an apt tagline for this as characters get trapped into madness of that mansion. Twice spider/web is shown indicating that it’s a trap.  Film does get into familiar horror territory in first half but thanks to the writing, it is just for a short period of time and was necessary for the story to progress. First half was a breeze. All 3 actors are in supreme form, Mammootty and Sidharth being the best according to me. Second half, though still amazing, I just wished the first major reveal didn’t happen immediately. Writer had a chance to extend the brilliant ambiguity of first half in the second half. But it did have a chilling surprises especially when it comes to certain sequences (Not usually seen in Indian films). It kinda reminded me of Alex Garland’s “Annihilation” and also to some extent John Carpenter’s “The Thing”.   Nonetheless even without dissecting stuffs here, it will still be a great great movie for me. I feel so damn happy as a movie buff that we have a director like this who make such movies and I am even happier that this was a huge success at the BO. An achievement for this genre. And finally Mammootty accepting to do this role is in itself a lesson for other mega stars in other industries. Such niche genres will get a big boost if a star like this accept such roles. Thats when we can see film industry upgrading. No wonder Malayalam cinema is constantly upgrading and giving me such great films in a genre I can’t imagine usually 🙏  Stunning performances, cinematography, music and sumptuous black and white everything will be etched in my mind forever from this film. It also has that Stanley Kubrick’s “The shining” vibe. I would have even accepted if Mammootty’s character shouted “I said I'm not gonna hurt you. I'm just gonna bash your brains in” just like Jack Nicholson’s character did hehe.