7th Day (2014)

Never before has an actor's smile changed shades and assumed a whole new meaning as that of Prithviraj. As an actor he has exercised his faculty for smile plenty of times, often translating it as a smirk, symbolic of nothing but absolute coldness. Of late, this man - who has consistently bettered himself to be the best - emotes brilliantly, making adept use of his smile with which he evokes the identity of his characters with utmost respect.7th day, a film made with lot of heart and brain finds its fulfillment in its lead. In a film where characters are puzzled with deaths, disappearances and questions around them, Prithviraj plays a man who wears thick-rimmed glasses with strands of white in neatly combed hair. His character is destined to find solutions, to hunt down answers and to trace true identities. There are reasons and objectives held back until all of these unfurl in a stunning final stroke which keeps the film rooted to a firm foundation.Prithvi absorbs his character with dedication, knowing fully that a slight lapse might give away hints which could foil a plot built with care and skill. He doesn't exert himself more than that is required, uttering his dialogues with a measure and modulation he can be proud of. There is a calm waiting to implode that plays on his face and he maintains that uncertainty religiously.Working on a script by Akhil Paul which exudes a lot of verve, Syamdhar is prudent in his choice of shots and arrangement of sequences, ably concealing the nerves of a debutant. There are sensible touches of humour which the plot joyfully accommodates without ever upsetting the fluid flow of the narrative. Even when the plot drags or seems headed to banality, Syamdhar pulls it back with ease.He is wonderfully assisted by the script and the frames Sujith designs for the film. His camera switches between close-ups and long-shots, swoops over a menacingly frothy waterfall and tends to give a bleached tint to his daylight visuals, an element that contributes to the riveting confusion between the real and the unreal, the past and the present.its not worth 6.7 .... huh...

So I was just looking to watch a mystery thriller and saw this on the list and gave it a chance. There was nothing great about anything in this movie. The story was flawed (I have added 8 goofs to the page; feel free to add more i may have missed or correct me). The direction lacked attention to detail like the story. There are numerous twists here and there but they just serve to make you think that's not possible at all. There are holes everywhere you look. I'm crazy about crime, mysteries and so I know what I'm talking about. They hurried through everything recklessly and without thought. Music score was fine. Camera work was fine in most areas but editing was irregular.

2014 has been a relatively good year for Malayalam Cinema with a couple of absolute gems, namely 1983 & Neram, and so when I ran a google check for the 10 best Malayalam movies of 2014, 7th day was one of the movies that popped up on a few lists. So it was with a bit of anticipation that I started watching this so called thriller. Prithviraj is a relatively good actor to be honest. He could be better if he wipes that smirk off his face. The movie is as disappointing as they come. You can spot the suspense from a mile away.Its time the movie industry stopped milking, The Usual Suspects. Why is it so necessary that every group of friends should include one fat obnoxious guy ? Is this an unwritten rule in Cinema ? And what is with Malayalam Cinema and foreign sounding names. The bloke's name is Christopher Moriarty for crying out loud. When did the Spaniards come to India ? Good thing they did not decide to go with Morientes. Another bloke is named Ebenezer. What next, Eliaquim Mangala ? What happened to the good old names like John & Matthew. Most of the support cast in the movie cannot act and so they try to compensate for their lack of acting skills with their eyes. Its just one amazing eye expression after another. Badly written. Badly acted. Badly shot though some of the locales look magnificent. Prithviraj is probably the only redeeming factor about the movie. Definitely not recommended.I might have to watch Neram again to get this movie out of my head.

This came up on my radar a couple of weeks previously, and I've been rewarded with some fantastic Malayalam movies this year, so my expectations from this one, esp. reading the social media sound-bites from the main protagonist, where he indicated that having a trailer out for this one might do the suspense element in the movie a dis-service. This works much like 'Vantage Point' or '11:14' did, if you've seen those already. However, it is a piece of original work, though if it had been narrated in a straight- forward manner, there would have been nothing special about it. So, being original, it still doesn't have much meat, IMO.The technical values are all good, though a few musical numbers could've been done without. The cinematography is above-average, as are the production and art design aspects. The editing, as befits a movie with this kind of narrative, ably supports the story-telling. The performances are definitely above-average. The guy who gave a great performance as Nivin Pauly's character's harried dad in '1983' has one scene, quite strong. The leading lady of 'Thegidi' plays a key character in this one too, and her make-up here is not as distracting as it was in that one (but anyone could've played the role she plays). Nivin Pauly's character's mom from 'Ohm Shanthi Oshaana' also has 2-3 scenes, but nothing substantial.The makers leave a lot of red herrings leading to the final denouement, including a couple of holes when you analyze the entire work in greater detail, but the movie doesn't suffer from those as those in genre would.Some critics have been cribbing about the dialoguing that goes on every few sequences, but I felt that they had been purposefully placed, and I was happy that they were, considering everything that they cumulatively lead up to. Nice way to place a mainstream dumbing-down technique to make one's point, and having that fulfill the purpose of pulling wool over the audience's eyes.One more thing on the score - when the movie starts out, it starts strong, very strong. And supported ably by the sound design too. However, after the 20 minute mark, it starts sounding like every other commercial potboiler, and subtlety takes a long, long hike, never to return, ending in cacophonous themes throughout. This is completely the opposite of the approach in another recent release, '1983', which started off bad (from the perspective of score), and settled into something simpler/subtle. That kinda detracted from the overall experience as well.Verdict: Definitely better than your run-of-the-mill mainstream feature, and though you don't need to trek up to the cinema to watch it, it deserves a viewing nonetheless.