Ottu review: If not for the lead actors, this Fellini TP directorial would pass for B-grade

Fellini TP’s Ottu begins with an ad board of a theatre screening The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. The year is 2020. I must say, that’s quite an impressive opening.

And then the plot begins. In line with the interests of his girlfriend Kalyani (Eesha Rebba), Kichu (Kunchacko Boban) wants to immigrate to Sweden. He doesn’t know where he can get the enormous sum of money needed for it.

He accepts a mysterious mission that comes his way with the promise of a huge sum of money. Kichu’s mission is to find out something from David (Aravind Swami), who is suffering from amnesia after a gang war.

Actors are wasted

The best part of the film is the two lead actors. The Kunchacko Boban-Aravind Swami combination holds the audience to the plot. They are extremely entertaining here.

Arvind Swami’s screen presence is the highlight. Instead of making him talk Malayalam with so much strain, the director could have asked him to talk in his original accent.

David’s character shift to gangster mode should have been the backbone of the first half, but the transformation scenes lacked punch. The background music makes it even worse. It missed a great transformation mass scene.

Kunchacko, in a never-seen-before character, is fine, but not reasonably and logically convincing. And then there are Adukalam Narein, Jackie Shroff, and Eesha Rebba. With a huge cast like that, you’d think the movie would be fantastic. However, the actors are wasted.

Dull narrative & zero entertainment

The plot doesn’t really hold up very well, and even within its world, it requires a lot of belief to be suspended. The plot hole is as large as the black hole.

It has a bloated and dull narrative that does little to transform its original material into something deserving of a big-screen adaptation.

Written by S Sanjeev, Ottu is a different film from Fellini TP’s Theevandi, the director’s previous outing.

More twists come in the second half. Sadly, all the twists and thrills come without any punch. They might have worked on paper, but the execution falls flat. This could have been much better. It is different from the routine but certainly not convincing.

Songs play an important role in dragging the first half, with little use. The second half has the distinct misfortune of being completely boring.

https://t.co/uCtMg281kC Rendagam trailer is here @thearvindswami #KunchackoBoban @bindasbhidu @YoursEesha @ShaneemZ @arya_offl @AugustCinemaInd pic.twitter.com/rJdqVzrUcw

— Fellini T.P (@fellu1987) September 5, 2022

Ottu is an easily forgettable film

Ottu is intended to be a part of a series. The idea was good, but it still lacks any of the tension that makes a movie thriller.

The entertainment factor of the movie is diminished by numerous scenes which don’t make much sense. Heavy on the lags, a terrible generic soundtrack makes it substandard.

The choreography and delivery of the stunts are on par with a crummy small-budget movie. It is so ridiculously unintentional comedy.

It has Kunchacko Boban and Arvind Swami, but is still a forgettable film. If not for the lead actors, the movie could have easily passed for B-grade.

This is a genre in which the Malayalam industry always misses hitting the bull’s eye, without Mammootty or Mohanlal. As a modern-day urban over-the-top action thriller, Ottu is also a miss.