Shot in Covid-19 restrictions, the film has been made on a mystery plot revolving around only 3 characters interacting in a single location of a house. It talks about an author, his girlfriend and a thief, together caught in a house on one rainy night. But what remains the key attraction of IRUL (meaning darkness) is its talented cast featuring Fahadh Faasil, Soubin Shahir and Darshana Rajendran - three of the most promising names of Malayalam films, led by Fahadh from the front.
However, despite the exciting cast, an interesting premise, and a noteworthy art direction, IRUL keeps struggling to deliver the promised thrills and entertainment, emphasizing more on the style, instead of the content, particularly the writing. It begins on a shaky note as the chemistry between the couple remains missing, but the suspense element keeps you engaged and Fahadh’s surprising entry adds to the excitement raising the expectations.
Sadly, the writing offers nothing great in terms of mystery or suspense, remaining badly influenced by classics like Hitchcock’s PSYCHO (1960) and Ram Gopal Varma's KAUN (1999) having a similar premise. As a result, IRUL completely derails in its second half and even the cast, along with a fine cinematography and background score, remain unable to be any kind of saviour for the film.
Anyhow, the one positive conveyed by IRUL is the promising debut by its director Naseef Yusuf Izuddin, who shows the sparks and can surely come up with a much better film based on some solid content. In straight words, a carefully written and sequenced script needs to be essentially worked upon first (as the most important requirement of a project), even if one has got actors like Fahadh and Soubin in the cast. Unfortunately, IRUL seems to be a kind of hurried work, especially in terms of writing, resulting in a strictly average film missing the must-have enjoyable twists and turns.
So, you can try this if you wish without expecting much as a Fahadh Faasil film, but a far superior project has to be there as Naseef’s next venture.
Rating : 2.5 / 5
Tags :
Irul (Malayalam) Review by Bobby Sing at bobbytalkscinema.com, New Films Reviews by Bobby Sing, New Indian Regional Films Reviews by Bobby Sing, New Malayalam Films Reviews by Bobby Sig
