Aadupuliyattam Review

On a comparison, there are improvements to be seen in Kannan Thamarakulam's Aadupuliyattam if we take his first film Thinkal Muthal Velly Varay. But that slight improvement is not enough to make the experience of watching Aadupuliyattam a sweet one. Its a bitter feeling after seeing this horror and family drama that has more of substandard elements, poor scripting and direction weighing more than any positive highlights.
The film tells the story of Sathyajith, a successful businessman who starts experiencing strange things. This force him to meet a Swamy who advise him something to get over from this. Aadupuliyattam goes into a flash back mode digging into Sathyajith's past life that bear some connection to his present situation.
The main problem with the movie is that it has everything cliched to make the viewing pleasure very bad. Each and every scene is highly predictable. Agree that it is not an easy task to make a convincing horror movie these days but that is not an excuse to escape from criticism.
Occasionally you get entertained through the comic moments created by the combination of Saju Navodaya, Ramesh Pisharady and Sreekumar. Even then, at times their humour turned into substandard mode making life difficult. It seems the writers and makers have borrowed the concept from Tamil horror comedy dramas but sadly the execution is a let down making Aadupuliyattam a disappointing film.
We have flash back portion and present moments shown and the change to the past had no clarity whatsoever creating confusion in our minds. Later we get to know what had happened but by then it was too late. Screenplay had its share of problems with over dramatic situations.
Technical side also did its best in making a bad flavour come out of Aadupuliyattam. Not so good cinematography and poor visual effects complimented by not so good action sequences. Editing gave a sloppy feel.
Jayaram in terms of looks had a different appeal altogether on screen. The bearded look was stylish while the other one was something that we have seen him previously. But on the performance side, he didn't have a meaty stuff to enact. Ramya Krishnan as Mathangy was impressive and the same goes for the two child artists.
Saju Navodaya, Sreekumar and Ramesh Pisharody were the lone bright aspect igniting the screen and making the film lively with their humour and fun. Om Pury was a miscast as Swamy and felt an actor of his calibre was under utilised and wasted. Sampath Raj appeared in a half baked role, not clear if he was a villain or a nice guy. Pradeep Kottayam was irritating while Sheelu Abraham didn't do anything and was a let down.
Overall, this is a better outing for Kannan Thamarakulam if we are to match Aadupuliyattam with his debut film. But with poor making and nothing new on the execution side this horror comedy drama falls flat and was a tiring watch for me. I am going with one and a half out of five as my personal rating for Aadupuliyattam.
Rating 1.5 / 5