In Short ...
VERDICT : Its not the kind of a movie where you go in groups and shout and clap after each scene. Rather its advisable to watch it in a silent crowd with full focus. Its a treat for all who could enjoy a dark psychological thriller !
In Detail ...
When was the last time you grumbled about lack of innovations in Malayalam movies, its usage of age old formulas and boring clichés over and over across the years .. Well I felt it all the time and often wondered why our directors are so afraid of experiments
Today I seem to have got a clue. Here is this movie which I felt is the best (and probably the first) complete psychological thriller in Malayalam and even then just before the scheduled start of the movie there were a total of 4 people in the queue including me and my partner. We were standing there helplessly waiting for another couple of folks to join to make the minimum quota of six people required to start the show. All this on a weekend and within the first week of the movie. In the mean time the queue next to us was filling up in no time and no wonder its Allu Arjun's dubbed-to-malayalam mass movie 'Lucky' !!
Highlight #1 --> A different path
In my book one of the key quality of an ideal thriller is its ability to involve viewers as part of the movie and make them use their imagination as well. For instance in the case of Hollywood thriller 'Memento' you can find tons of articles online where viewers still discusses different possibilities , alternative endings and their interpretations of certain scenes. In our desi thrillers there is usually no room for such post movie discussions since the complete solution is often wrapped along with the puzzle. '1 by Two' gives enough space for the viewers to think and leaves certain points unanswered for us to fill. Kudus to the director for choosing a way less travelled in this part of the world
Highlight #2 --> Avoided distractions
Another area where our thrillers usually fails in the inability to avoid certain unnecessary distractions (read just-like-that songs, needless fights, unwanted romance etc). But through out this movie there is hardly anything unwanted and out of context
Highlight #3 --> Performance
I remember actor Bharath Gopi once mentioning about the strain he used to puts towards the perfection of a role. I haven't seen much of Bhrath Gopi movies, but watching his son Murali Gopi I got a taste of what he meant. Murali Gopi's acting is undoubtedly brilliant, but more than that you can clearly feel the effort and dedication from the actor towards making the character(s) perfect. Not a lot of space for Fahad Fazil and Honey Rose and especially for Fahad the emotionally charged police officer role is merely a walk in the park. Special mention to Shyama prasad's 'natural' cameo as a psychologist
Could have improved #1 --> Too much English
There was a disclaimer with justification at the start of the movie about the usage of languages other than Malayalam. But still one could feel that English is a little over-used especially in parts where it was totally unwanted
Tail piece -- <<< SPOILERS ALERT >>>
I could feel a strange resemblance of the movie with the last known psychological thriller in Malayalam 'Manichithrathazhu'. The way Dr Sunny justifies the super natural incidents with the power a person gets during the psychological 'role play' makes a lot of sense in this movie also. Also climax of Shobhana's Nagavalli can be compared with Murali's Pisharadi. How ever the major difference is that while 'Manichitrathazhu' focuses on humour in the first half and switch to thriller in the next, '1 by Two' chooses to stick as a pure psychological thriller pretty much through out !
