Naalam Mura Review | A Lame Thriller That Tests Your Patience With Its Lazy Writing

During the promotion of the film Naalam Mura, the makers claimed that it is called Naalam Mura because the movie explores the psychological side of an investigation. But by the time the movie reaches its climax and shows the audience what really happened, you would wonder why such a simple case was so much of a headache for Kerala Police. With a script evidently struggling to create at least one moment of genuine excitement, Naalam Mura is a dead-on-arrival thriller.

Jayesh is returning home after a two-year stint in the middle east. Everyone is waiting for him at his home. But the crime branch decides to take him under custody for a case that primarily has no connections with Jayesh. With no proper warrant, the crime branch has only a narrow window in front of them to get the truth from Jayesh and what we see in Naalam Mura is their tactics to make Jayesh confess.

The first thing that strikes you is that Guru Somasundaram is a misfit for the character. The way he speaks Malayalam clearly creates cringe-worthy moments in many places in the film. Of course, the problem is the film’s foundation, and the fragile script stretches cliched moments beyond endurance. You find yourself constantly wondering about the necessity of certain buildups, and many of the subplots are utterly useless distractions in a movie that is only 110 minutes long.

When it comes to the casting, it is actually disappointing to see people like Biju Menon and Guru Somasundaram wasted in roles that are written with extreme laziness. Biju Menon sleepwalks through a character that doesn’t look challenging at all. There is a pointless fight sequence in the movie, which felt like a last-minute addition in order to keep the set awake. As I already said, Guru Somasundaram was a misfit for the character, and there are junctures in the film where his expressions clearly communicate, “what am I really doing?” Divya Pillai’s character is a forgettable addition to the story. Alencier, Alexander Prashanth, Santhipriya, Sheelu Abraham, etc., are all part of this movie.

Director Deepu Anthikkad is going after cliched tropes to build certain scenes. Every sequence has this very forced feel to its credit. The romance, the comedy, and even the efforts to make Jayesh some sort of mysterious criminal, etc., look very superficial and lame. The writing is also following templates, and the sad part is it can’t even follow the template properly. The way they have placed the much-hyped Kolunthu song in the movie clearly shows the cluelessness of the makers in packaging this movie.

Naalam Mura is a lame thriller that stretches its wafer-thin thought in an aimless way. With a making that doesn’t know where to focus, the movie becomes a test of patience from a very early stage. The movie wants to create the atmosphere of a thriller where the killer is a tough nut. But it has no clue on how to achieve that emotional graph.