Carbon Review: A fascinating edge-of-the-seat adventure thriller!

Fahadh Faasil’s first outing of the year, Carbon has hit screens today. Prior to the release itself, the movie raised a lot of expectations due to the big names involved in it. In addition to that, the promos were all very promising. Let’s see how the movie has eventually turned out to be.

Carbon is the story of a rustic youth, Sibi Sebastian, whose only wish is to make some quick money. Just like a typical money minded youngster, he does all sorts of middleman jobs in pursuit of earning quick money. One such job lands him in a palace located in deep forests at the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border. From there on, the plot shifts to a treasure hunt mode. It is basically a story of survival; whether Sibi makes it through forms the rest of the narrative.

Like always, Fahadh Faasil has given an excellent performance. Sibi Sebastian looks like a role tailor made for him and he aced through it quite effortlessly with his innate charm. The core plot takes off only in the latter half when Sibi is joined by Sameera, played by Mamta Mohandas. Her graceful presence lends more life to the proceedings.

They are accompanied by Stalin and Kannan played by Manikandan Achari and Master Chethan Lal respectively. The former had a meaty role and he made the most of it. Spadikam George, Nedumudi Venu, Vijayaraghavan and Kochu Preman are also part of the supporting cast.

Venu has scripted a thoroughly engaging film that keeps the audience hooked till the very last frame. He was ably supported by his brilliant technical team. KU Mohanan’s cinematography is fantastic as his frames capture the sprawling forests in all its beauty. It must’ve been really taxing to shoot in such locations but that difficulty is not there to be seen in the movie. Instead, Carbon is rich with some quality visuals. Vishal Bhardwaj has composed three beautiful songs, all of them in perfect sync with the situations. The mystery element in the movie is maintained throughout thanks to Bijibal’s intriguing background score. Sound design is handled wonderfully as the viewer gets the mood of being inside a forest.

The whole team of Carbon deserves a round of appreciation for the efforts they have put in to shoot in such difficult terrains. All their efforts bore fruit as they have dished out a quality output. Overall, Carbon is a thoroughly engaging film with some thrilling moments.