Pradeep Kalipurayath’s Bethaludu (2016) Movie Review

Movie Review: Bethaludu

Starcast: Vijay Anthony, Arundathi Nair, Charuhasan, Meera Krishnan, Y G Mahendra, Siddhartha Shankar, Kamal Krishna, Aadukalam Murugadoss, Vijay Sarathy and Kitty
Music Composed by Vijay Anthony
Cinematography by Pradeep Kalipurayath
Edited by Veera Senthil Raj
Directed by Pradeep Krishnamoorthy

Censor Certificate: UA & Runtime: 124.59 Minutes

A film coming from the camp of Vijay Antony, brings along its own set of anticipations and different type of ideas. And “Bethaludu” proves no exception to that rule, since it does have the expected weird kind of schizophrenic sequences and sudden shifts in the narrative. But don’t take this as an all positive comment cause unfortunately the film is not that convincing and thrilling as it seems to be with the early promos.

Dinesh (Vijay Antony) is a young schizophrenic who is desperately trying to get back to his normal family life. He attempts to function in a world that’s for him is filled with strange voices, electrical disturbances and disconcerting images and jarringly sudden character shifts. He clings to his humanity like a raft barely afloat in a sea of flashback terror. In a brief moment of past life regression session, he transforms himself to Sharma (but this could be his projection as well!!). During his quest, he runs afoul of the scientific laws and a closed murder investigation.

The present generation actors always struggling to find the right script and give a true hit film to his fans, Vijay Antony has been improving in the industry with every film, irrespective hits and flops. It is worth noticing, how a dead pan actor like Vijay Antony is selecting films. Unlike his peers, he doesn’t remain within the confines of his hard earned image. In Bethaludu playing the soft teacher, revenge seeking Sharma and software family person, a dead pan actor like Vijay Antony just makes you feel just like you are watching the showreel of Vijay Antony in different getups. Arundathi Nair, who plays a housewife in the film, has does decent job at the start and later slumped along with the script. Y G Mahendran, Meera Krishnan and Aadukalam Murugadoss wasted in their short and simple roles.

Bethaludu is largely inspired by Sujatha Rangarajan’s novel “Aaah” (1992), which tackles hypnotism – VDHL – Split Personality – Auditory Hallucinations – Reincarnations points in a single story-line. In cinematic terms it’s a very amateurish kind of attempt made on “unconquered revenge” being showcased in a present society. And its first few consequences itself give you a precise idea about how the subject is going to be tackled by the director in the later reels. So, the film is neither able to connect with the audience, right from its first frame nor its capable enough of giving any kind of message to the viewers about the illegal drug testing. The script keeps jumping from one point to another ignoring its basic element called ‘Continuation.’ The characters go through such a simple character jumps that the viewer feels confused about film’s basic plotline. Particularly the romance between the lead couple seem to be very unrealistic and deliberate which brings down the whole spirit of the movie drastically. (Another point, a sole driven by revenge and high end emotion is able to forgive the revenge and move on, then the love strong that he should have been regress from his original action. Which doesn’t even happen.) In short, there is nothing in the film which is able to support its otherwise interesting subject. Even the characters are so weak that the veteran actors such as Charuhaasan, Y G Mahendran look like fresh entrants in the field. And not every person who knows about framing should become a director, any good cinematographer could understand a symmetry and 1/3^rd rule. So as a director we expect someone to have command over script and the final output.

Musically, Vijay Antony uses only a few songs to set the right mood. The cinematography Pradeep Kalipurayath and the background score of the film taking you into the thrilling ambiance. Editing by Veera Senthil Raj is not convincing enough, this theme required much more thematic cuts with a basic rhythm. But it ends up as a mere cut paste job.

Basically, a schizophrenic patient (a fancy term given for suicidal tendencies) would be going through deeper levels of depression and in the film Dinesh never exhibits this kind of deep hurted emotions throughout his introduction. Somehow even the reputed physiologist fails to touch such a point. This is just an example about amateurishly this script was written. When you are adapting a novel you must be more careful and imaginative as well. But the film underwhelming overwhelms a viewer throughout the film. To sum up, Bethaludu – could have been a good one on one session with a reputed physiologist facing our fears and understanding our troubles, but its ends up being a bore fest.

Survi Review: 1.5/5