Helen

It's a beautiful movie about relationship, compassion and faith. But people should think the chicken hub where the girl was working. Animals suffer a lot more and live in even more horrifying conditions because of such places. Don't they survival Instincts? Million of animals suffer just because of meat,eggs and dairy consumption. World should really go vegan and stop this hypocrisy of just having compassion for their own types.

Helen, a different genre in Malayalam Cinema (i remember Maalootty was the first in this genre) is a well executed survivor thriller directed by Mathukkutty Xavior. Featuring Anna Ben in the lead, delivered a brilliant performance whole throughout indeed it was a wonderful performance. Mathukkutty as a director and scriptwriter along with Noble & Alfred, did all the homework for a survivor movie about a girl trapped in a freezer (from my point of view) but it had several weak links as well as some setbacks in the movie. Anend C Chandran's cinematography deserves applause. Noble, Lal, Aju Varghese, Rony David and the others performances contributed well to the movie. The major drawback of the movie i felt it was Shaan Rahman's score. He did well in the beginning and when towards the second half he lost his control and the score he made and the inclusion of Vineeth's song was inappropriate. All in whole Helen is worth watch (but didnt felt it as a nail biting phenomenon)

Helen - a mixture of suspense and emotions backed up by amazing performance by Anna Ben .. Supporting cast are perfect.. Chilling experience to watch it on big screen . A film not be missed

There are films that are strictly meant for short narrative, and Helen as a film, unfortunately, falls into that category. Supposedly a survival thriller, the plotline is very thin, and when such a thin plotline is stretched on to a bigger canvas, the writing gets convenient, characters get created with no motives, they are just to keep the plot alive for its running time. There are 2 threads running in parallel post first half, one is a survival story of missing Helen, and the other is a thriller surrounding the loved ones of Helen trying to find her with the help of police officials & locals. The survival plot works pretty well, the attempts, the struggles that Helen makes to come out of the conflict is justifiable. A nurse by profession, the compassion for a helpless rodent in that life and death situation really goes well with the character. The problem for me with Helen lies with the thriller part, for any thriller film if the viewer is ahead of the narrative, then it brings on the irritation for the viewer waiting for the filmmaker to catch up with the audience. This is the same feeling, I was going throughout while watching this film. Especially, the investigation was delayed indefinitely to an extent that the loved ones of the missing girl had to wait to get the location details from the cyber cell. To achieve this, we are introduced forcefully to a bad cop, just to delay arranging the details of the location, there's no further depth to this character and that's for me very convenient. From a relativity perspective, there were many opportunities for the filmmaker to tap on the emotional aspect of the father-daughter relationship. Unfortunately, it remains at a superficial level, probably this leads again to the thin plotline the film stretches on, characters lack detailing. Performance-wise, every other performed aptly, surprisingly I was amused by Aju Varghese's performance, though the character was flawed. Helen, a film strictly one-time watch for the genre it deals, and for not digressing from the core conflict.

Helen (given name) made me tear up not because of the survival element - which is a rarity in Malayalam cinema, I should add - but because of standout performances by Lal and Anna Ben who play a father-daughter duo with so much delicacy and warmth it drives the thriller forward without being hammy. It is when Ben's character gets stuck in a cold storage unit one day that things take a turn in the plot as the director uses the event to highlight a series of issues currently plaguing the country: police apathy and their morality lens, caste discrimination, and work stress. It is rather delicious to find these topics scattered as garnishing in a film that is by and large about survival. How Ben manages to enact her challenging role is definitely an attracting element here but what I would like to move your attention to is the range of Lal and how effortlessly he plays the role of a father figure with ultimate finesse it reminded me of my own. Helen has been made well with slight issues in screenplay in the first half and a little bit of convenience storytelling but overall it comes around and will make you feel emotional towards the end. There's no way you'll feel disappointed. TN.

The true story tag really appeals for a watch, but the movie is over dramaticized in too many places to keep up the audience in the edge of the seat. But honestly beyond a point one could easily predict the course of scenes and it's easy just think of the worst thing that could go wrong (Phone battery dies when it's too urgent, hero will meet with accident when he wants to go to save the girl......). A true story deserves a more authenic screenplay and characterization !

A sincere performance by Anna Ben. In a mediocre survival thriller. This film has outdone all the recent releases at the box office. The credit goes to the charming Anna Ben. She carries the weakly scripted and routinely directed film on her shoulders. I recommend it to fans of Anna Ben. I do not recommend it to fans of cinema, despite the novel plot.

The movie is definitely inspired by Andres Bais directed 2011 thriller La Cara Oculta or The Hidden Face.Apart from the basic premise Helen manages to hold on with superlative performances from the lead cast. The movie starts with establishing Helens character, a nursing graduate with aspirations to go abroad, earn and help her father played to perfaction by Anna Ben and Lal.Helen works part time in a restaurant and is seeing a muslim boy.unexpected turn of events brings in ruthless cop Aju Verghese into the frames, which leads to a night of desperate hunt for Helen who goes missing. Power packed performances and fuss free direction from debutant director Mathukkutty Xavier makes the movie a convincing and compelling watch