Winter Malayalam Movie
After languishing in the cans for four years, 'Winter', the debut film of Dipu Karunakaran, whose second movie 'Crazy Gopalan' was released a few months back, finds its way to the theatres, with almost no publicity. And this lack of publicity seems to be doing considerable harm to what is a rather well-made film. It's worth noting that Dipu, who was just 26 when he directed 'Winter', has made the movie with a kind of cinematic excellence that many veterans are yet to master.
'Winter' begins with the story of a psychopath, who has been troubling the people living in a little village on the outskirts of Hyderabad. He kidnaps children, then slits their throats and kills them. ASP Saju (Vijayakumar) and team are on the verge of nabbing him when he gets killed, charred to death in a car crash.
The story moves forward in time and Dr. Ramdas (Jayaram) and his wife Shyama (Bhavana), who live in Hyderabad along with their two kids, decide to move to a new house on the advice of Dr. Vinod (Manoj K. Jayan), who has been treating the couple's elder daughter, who's afflicted with some psychic ailment. They buy a new house on the outskirts of the city. The house 'Hill View' incidentally is the same house where the psychopath used to live and to which he would bring his victims.
Very soon Shyama and the kids begin to hear unusual sounds and have eerie experiences. Gopalan (Vijeesh), who is their servant and almost a family member, too has strange experiences. They come to the conclusion that the house is haunted, as is often told by the villagers. But Ramdas brushes such talks aside as superstition. And then he too has strange experiences. From there the story takes off.
Jayaram and Bhavana deliver excellent performances while Manoj K. Jayan is good as Dr. Vinod. Vijeesh (better remembered as 'Noolunda' of 'Nammal') provides the necessary comic relief. Vijayakumar plays ASP Saju in his usual style. Ramakrishna Gummidi delivers some very excellent frames, while Arun Kumar who was an associate to the late editor N. Gopalakrishnan and who has been editing Priyadarsan's Hindi films, does a good job editing 'Winter', making it really slick. The background score is in sync with the theme and the mood of the film. There is only one song in the movie. It's rendered by M.G. Sreekumar and gels perfectly with the mood of the film, coming in at an apt moment. Music director Rajakrishnan shows promise of a successful career.
Dipu has done an excellent work as a director. As the guy at the helm of affairs, he seems to be well in control of everything. But while Dipu delivers much more than what's expected of a debutant director of such young age, he fails on the script side. There are sequences in the script that seem very clichéd. Despite that, 'Winter' is still a film that one should not miss.
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