Kamala Review: a thriller that is far too easy to predict

In the first few minutes of the latest Ranjith Sankar movie Kamala, you might get a feeling that the director has decided to do something different from his usual stories. But very soon the movie slips into that usual zone of a Ranjith Shankar movie and the excitement sort of ends there. The inability of the script to make any fresh turn to things makes Kamala a pretty dull experience. Kamala is a thriller that is far too easy to predict.

Safar, a real estate and automobile broker is on his way to a forest area in the Kerala Tamilnadu border for a land deal. He also has a plan to meet a girl named Kamala whom he met in the past during a car deal. But Safar’s plans for the day get disturbed after his meeting with Kamala and the movie is showing us who Kamala really is and her motive.

When the movie exaggerates a point as a crucial twist and you were able to guess it very easily at the beginning itself, the experience becomes boring. That’s the problem with Kamala. Kamala is trying to act as a fresh concept whereas we have seen similar movies in the past. There are times I felt my prediction was much better than what the director envisioned. Ranjith Sankar is going after familiar props in a thriller script and the Anoop Menon back story just made it that perfect cliché.

In the beginning, the movie had some unique plans. It was calm, subtle and less vocal. But half an hour into the script, the usual social commitment and messaging starts to pour and even if you enter the theatre at that point, you will be able to guess that this is a Ranjith Sankar movie. All the best frames in the movie were shown in the promos. The background score sounded way too loud towards the second half. When they try to scare you using background score for an easily predictable scene, it will start to feel so silly.

The movie focuses mainly on Kamala and so casting someone like Aju Varghese as Safar is a simple choice. Aju as a performer is trying to hide his usual dramatic style rather than being actually subtle. The leading lady Ruhani Sharma definitely has an issue in getting the lip-sync properly. But her looks and expressions definitely suited the mysterious and alluring Kamala. Biju Sopanam, Sunil Sukhada, and Sajin Cherukayil are there in the main cast in small roles. Anoop Menon is there in a cameo-like role and he behaves like Anoop Menon and not the character.

Kamala is the usual thriller that doesn’t have any surprise for the viewers. The viewers are left with a feeling of “been there, seen that”. Aju Varghese as a leading man was one of the USPs of this film and the movie sort of fails to use that peculiarity too. On the whole Kamala is one forgettable thriller.