Aadhi Review: Pranav Mohanlal marks his arrival in style!

Aadhi Review: Pranav Mohanlal marks his arrival in style!

Pranav Mohanlal’s comeback to the industry has been eagerly anticipated by the Malayali audience. The long wait has finally come to an end as his debut movie as a lead actor, Aadhi, has hit screens today. Releasing amidst tremendous pre-release hype, has this Jeethu Joseph directorial managed to live up to that? Read to know more.

Aadhi has Pranav Mohanlal playing Adithya Mohan, an aspiring music director, who lives with his parents in Kochi. Things take a turn once he reaches Bangalore for performing at a posh club. An unfortunate set of events there lands him in trouble which pits him against a group of highly influential people. How he eventually gets out of that safely forms the rest of the plot.

Jeethu Joseph is well known for his ability to churn out quality thriller movies. With Aadhi, he has tried an action thriller for the first time and he has come out in flying colours. Lion’s share of the credits should go to his lead man, Pranav Mohanlal, who has performed amazingly well in the fight sequences. The movie does not have an out of the box storyline as such, but Jeethu’s smartly written screenplay keeps the audience hooked throughout the runtime.

On the performance side, it was a complete Pranav Mohanlal show as he is there throughout the movie from the very first shot till the last frame. The movie does not offer much scope to showcase his acting prowess but as a debutant, the youngster has managed to put up a good show. In Pranav, we have a new action hero who can perform some breathtakingly real stunts rather than the done-to-death gravity defying ones.

Aadhi has only a handful of characters and the notable performers among them were Anusree, Meghanathan, Sharafudheen and Siddique. Among the antagonists, Siju Wilson looked the best. The usually dependable Lena was surprisingly poor in the latter half.

Technically, Aadhi has its glitches with the shoddy VFX works. Satheesh Kurup’s cinematography in the chase sequences were brilliant. Anil Johnson has composed a couple of good songs and his background score helped in maintaining a thriller mood in the second half. There are three solid fights in the movie, including the climax, and all of them are choreographed brilliantly. The movie has some never-before-seen kind of action blocks in Malayalam cinema.

Overall, Aadhi is a treat for those who love to watch action thrillers. It is nothing but a perfect launchpad for Pranav Mohanlal. Yes, Aadhi has lived up to the massive pre-release hype.