Sullu

While we were making the best movies list of 2019 for our insta page on film reviews (filmypeanuts), many people asked us why we omitted Helen from the list. Helen was an edgy survival thriller, and a well-made film, that too by a debutant. Agreed. But there was something off about it. For us, it was mostly the deliberate dramatic manipulations of the scenes in an attempt to add to the thrill that compromised the realism to some extent. On that note, let's talk about Sullu, a Malayalam movie released in late 2019 and certainly one that unfortunately went unnoticed. Written and directed by Vishnu Bharadwaj, the 12th new director introduced by the production company Friday Film House, Sullu is a survival thriller released on November 22, 2019, a week later than Helen. We feel this was the most unfortunate part about the movie since both of them fell in identical genres, and directed by debutants. But what makes Sullu different and a cut above is it's uncompromising way of stitching scenes together. Not for once did Vishnu Bharadwaj shy away from taking on the challenge off giving the story a natural progression (without any coincidences that we can see coming). The story cuts to the chase and directly enters the core situation and builds all characters around this one premise. But the star of the show is none other than Vasudev who portrayed the 9-year old Jithu with deep conviction and realism. Stigin Starview's cinematography and Stephen Mathew's editing were spot on while the supporting cast excelled at their parts. At 103 minutes, this movie is racy, emotionally engaging, and did deserve far more box office recognition. Definitely give this one a shot.

For a survival drama, Sullu's (Wrong) protagonist - a young, school-going boy - does not demand sympathy from its viewers. You won't root for him as the menace finds himself locked in a cupboard while playing hide-and-seek, but also with the sympathy quotient, it is the poor direction, dull performances, and a loose screenplay (with to-and-fro flashback sequences that dilute the gripping effect the drama should ideally have had) that makes this experiment a failure. TN.

I just picked Sullu to watch by chance. The overview suggested that it could be a tad boring, but that it certainly was not. Though I admit to using the fast forward during several extra slow scenes, some when Jithu is stuck in the cupboard. The acting, the locations, sets etc are very real. The story is not far fetched, this situation could happen to anyone's child. The typical relationship between parents, father and son of around that age are realistically and well portrayed, as are the flashbacks. Vasudev the child actor, put in outstanding effort. His expressions ranging from playful, childish behaviour to trying every means to open the cupboard, stoic acceptance when he cant, sheer terror, hallucinations etc. were absolutely real. Hats off Vasu and to the director who brought this out from him. The situations and the rest of the cast are also very good, very relatable, they could be anyone you know. The sting in the tail is at the end with the viewer left to figure out if Jithu survives ... or not ....... Overall, Sullu is a good movie, worth watching. Can get a bit slow but nothing that cant be fast forwarded through without losing any of the plot. Saw this on Amazon Primevideo with English subtitles.