Review for PRAANA:
*Language: Malayalam.
*Genre: Psychological Horror Thriller.
*Duration: 01 Hour 47 Minutes.
*Theatre: Ragam Cinemas.
*Status: 30%.
•REVIEW BY: ARUNJYOTHI. R. VALIYAVEETIL.
•PROS:
1: Direction.
2: Performance of lead actors.
3: Cinematography
4: Sound Effects.
5: Music and Background Score.
6: Technical Departments.
•CONS:
1: Story.
2: Half Baked Screenplay.
•ONE WORD: A movie which ranks at the top by its technical brilliance.
•STORY IDEA:
Praana revolves around Thara Anuradha who is a famous writer. She publishes a book called ‘Freedom Of Music’. The book describes the freedom of ladies and their own interest. The book gets controversy and she faces lots of threat. To take a break she moves to a house at a hill station. The house is haunted by a supernatural presence. She chooses the house for a visual diary for a channel. Rest of the story revolves around the haunting experiences of Thara followed by twist and turn.
•ANALYSIS TO DIRECTION, STORY, SCREENPLAY AND DIALOGUES:
The movie is directed by VK Prakash after the Careful which was released in 2017. The direction held by VK. Prakash was impressive and truly passionate. He had executed the entire movie with the authentic standard.
But sadly the story written by Rajesh Jayaraman was average because the story of the movie was having similarities to the film called ‘Moonnamathoral’ released in the year 2006 which was directed by VK. Prakash itself. The base of the story in Pranna was having a high resemblance to ‘Moonnamathoral’. The premise of the story and its twist and turn in Praana doesn’t create an impact due to this similarity. Those who had watched Moonnamathoral won’t be happy with the storyline of Praana.
An important factor in the story of Praana is that it shows the injustice against the women in the existing society. So this backdrop is strongly portrayed in the film in a thrilling mood with fears faced by the central character. The story becomes predictable from the mid and what the writer is aimed for the climax can be easily pictured. The story could have been written better by bringing out fresh concepts and also the writer was having enough areas to build something creative but nothing new was seen.
According to the story, the screenplay was also half baked. The screenplay was moderate with some couple of interesting and thrilling horror elements. But as a horror movie, the writer could have been concentrated more to bring interesting fear factors. The situations for the horror was good but nothing to get feared. Each and every time until the end was eagerly waiting to witness a different fearful horror scene but nothing spectacular was observed rather than some excellent sound effects.
If the makers were successful in bringing out new concepts in horrors the story or screenplay won’t be felt like an issue but wistfully disappointed by the writings. The social atrocities against women were genuinely portrayed by the writer but overall the story was unexciting.
Interestingly the director VK. Prakash had effectively used the acting talent of Nithya Menen. Her entire screen presence throughout the movie was superior. The making was at top class and the technical division also helped VK. Prakash to establish a top-class direction.
Coming to the dialogues the writer had done a good job. The conversations in the movie spoken by the central character were excellent. There are some strong dialogues in the movie which clearly defines the intolerance and injustice against women in our contemporary society which deserves applause.
So the direction was excellent but the repeating story and half baked screenplay made Praana as a less engaging horror film.
•PERFORMANCE OF ACTORS :
The movie Praana have only a single performer i.e, Nithya Menen.
Praana is all about the outstanding performance of Nithya Menen. From the beginning to the end Nithya Menen just stole the show. The way she handled the character ‘Thara Anuradha’ was expectational. The boldness, the affection, the fear, various emotions were characterized amazingly. For her emotional sequences, she deserves a huge thumbs up. The fear in her eyes in the horror scenes was truly astonishing. She was also cute and gorgeous and her unique way of delivering the dialogues was also superb. Like I said all in all Praana is all about Nithya Menen’s unbelievable performance.
•MUSIC AND TECHNICAL ASPECTS:
The musical works for Praana are composed by Louiz Banks. The song ‘Shalabhamaayi’ sung by Shilpa Raj was melodious also the opening song ‘Oru Vaakkin Mounam’ sung by Nithya Menen was good to hear. The background score tuned by Arun Vijay for the horror scenes and also the background scores for the emotional scenes were exceptional.
Thee cinematography handled by PC Sreeram was magical with beautiful frames. The beauty of Peeramade was captured intensely. Each and every frame in the opening song was glorious. His various camera angles inside the house were breathtaking. The light ups were perfect and the movements for the horror scenes were magnificent. One of the best work of PC Sreeram.
The sound effects were on a whole new thrilling level. Praana as the first movie ever to indulge the live surround synch sound format gives another wonderful feel that has never experienced before. The credit goes to the Oscar winner Resul Pookutty and also Amrit Pritam.
The editing of Sunil.S.Pillai was crisp and clear without feeling mismatches and the artwork of Bawa M and costumes of Deepali Noor was also impressive.
•OVERALL:
So overall as a psychological horror thriller, Praana doesn’t give me a complete satisfied experience because of the storyline and half-baked screenplay but the movie ranked at high by its wonderful technical brilliance. If you haven’t watched the movie ‘Moonnamathoral’ and if you love to experience a different level of surrounded synch sound format then Praana is all yours.
( For an awesome experience please do watch the movie from a theatre having 4K or 2K Projection with the best sound facility like Atmos or Barco. )
•VERDICT: ABOVE AVERAGE
•RATING: 3/5.
