Udal review: With violence as senseless as its writing, Indrans-Dhyan Sreenivasan’s dawdling thriller makes for an exhausting watch

2/5

Story:

Kuttichayan (Indrans) is an elderly, docile patriarch who lives with his daughter-in-law Shyni (Durga Krishna), grandson and the former’s paralysed wife. Unbeknownst to him, Shyni is involved in an affair with her old college mate Kiran (Dhyan Sreenivasan), while her husband Reju (Jude Anthany Joseph) stays away from home on account of his job. Things take a turn when a tragic turn of events forces the people in the house to fight for their very lives.

Review:

Udal’s trailer gave the impression that viewers would get to see Indrans take on the role of an all out antagonist who terrorises a couple he trapped inside a house. Although the basic gist of it proves to be true, the film establishes how wildly different the circumstances are that lead to the entrapment, right from its first act.

The film starts off on a promising enough note. Shyni is a housewife at the end of her rope. With an absent husband and her days spent in caring for her ailing mother-in-law, soon her only solace becomes her affair with her old college mate Kiran, the latter being smitten with Shyni. Reju is the thoughtless, insensitive husband who rarely gives an ear to his wife’s troubles, while Kuttichayan is the polar opposite of his son. The elderly man is dedicated as ever to caring for his wife despite her incapacitation. The characters more or less follow the same lines of formulaic tropes they start with, with their character development or decline coming off as forced and inorganic when it does happen. Right from the first act, it is painfully obvious who the film’s main antagonist is and what their motivations are, and the writing makes sure to paint them as ‘evil’ as possible.

While the first act features a dead giveaway of the main antagonist, the way the writing tries to give them shades of grey falls abysmally short. So instead of a layered, messy character with conflicting emotions, whose circumstances in part drive them to engage in their cruel actions, viewers are left with a ruthless antagonist motivated by nothing but selfishness. The only sliver of their humanity that slips out is during a single sequence when they break down from the weight of their actions, but even that is brushed aside as quickly as it comes.

Indran’s character of Kuttichayan too suffers from flaky characterisation that causes him to switch between sympathy inducing patriarch to a cold-blooded villain whenever the mood strikes him. Although the veteran actor does try his best to do justice to the character with his performance, the weak writing leaves little to no room for salvaging the same. The same could also be said of Durga Krishna and Dhyan Sreenivasan’s characters as well.

The film did manage to get right the atmosphere of a triggering claustrophobic thriller, with cold-blooded violence at every corner. Although the violence does seem excessive and too graphic at times, a fast-paced story could have justified the sequences, which ultimately does not happen. Dawdling at every turn, the story crawls at a snail's pace, which ultimately culminates in a fragile and muted climax.

Verdict:

Although Udal boasts of the talents of stars such as Indrans and Dhyan Sreenivasan, Ratheesh Reghunandan fails to weave a compelling narrative out of the claustrophobic thriller.