00:00Malayalam actor Fahad Fazal's trippy psychedelic drama called Trance starts on a trippy note,
00:06but then it has a very unsatisfying conclusion and does not end on a high.
00:17This is my review of director Anwar Rashid's Trance. It's one of the most highly anticipated
00:23Malayalam movies of 2020 and you can see why. Firstly, Anwar Rashid is the byword for cool
00:29and stylish filmmaking in Malayalam cinema. He's an expert at slow motions, swish action scenes
00:36and basically storylines that make you suspend belief and also creating some of the most
00:42flamboyant actors and characters on the big screen. It's always exciting to watch an Anwar
00:48Rashid film, but here's what I liked about this film. It's a story that centres around
00:54Viju Prasad, played brilliantly by Fahad Fazal. He calls himself a motivational speaker, but then
01:00he's cherry-picked by corporate giants to become a con man, a spiritual healer of sorts. He's a
01:07self-styled spiritual leader and guru and he prances around stage. His entire personality
01:14is groomed to be this larger-than-life spiritual healer and you have all these unsuspecting army
01:20of believers turning loyalist and having this blind faith in him. He's the kind of spiritual
01:25healers that you know or an evangelist who prances around stage, screams hallelujah. He does
01:32it in a showbiz, showman, flamboyant style. So, I think Fahad Fazal is perfectly cast as this
01:39con man turned spiritual healer. This is also one of the movies that deal with a very interesting
01:44premise. I mean, just think about it. How can religion or Christianity, in this case Christianity,
01:50how can religion be a very lucrative business enterprise? They're looking behind the commerce
01:55of making money behind all these self-styled spiritual leaders. What a fantastic premise,
02:02but somehow it doesn't come together as a whole in this film. The movie opens with the dysfunctional
02:07lives of two siblings, Viju Prasad and his younger brother Kunji, played by Srinath Basi. Now, what
02:13happens is that Kunji is mentally ill and he commits suicide because they come from a very
02:19troubled past. They saw their mom commit suicide and therefore there's this history of mental
02:24illness in the family. So, you have Viju Prasad played by Fahad Fazal, who is the primary caregiver
02:30to his brother, but then he somehow cannot make peace with the fact that his younger brother took
02:36his own life, just like his mother committed suicide. It's a very bleak and dreary present
02:41and it's his path to gain some kind of closure. In fact, there is one scene which had my heart.
02:47There's Fahad Fazal calling his psychiatrist up and saying that the antidepressants that was given
02:52to him is no miracle drug and he's not able to sleep. You kind of see his anguish. He's almost
02:56like a wounded animal and then his transformation from a wounded animal into a self-styled guru.
03:01You can almost see how it's done. I mean, he's so polished. In the beginning, he's an unsure,
03:07young, motivational speaker, but towards the end, he becomes this arrogant, very rich, flamboyant
03:13spiritual leader. So, it's very interesting to see the transformation. I think it requires a
03:18consummate actor like Fahad Fazal to actually play such a complex and dark and a grey role.
03:25I mean, he's got so many shades to his personality. The problem with this film is that the movie
03:30starts on a promising note, but it unravels towards the second half. It becomes way too long.
03:35It has a running time of 170 minutes, which is very long. It's just under three hours.
03:40And how long can you see the same scenes of him playing this pastor, you know, this phony pastor
03:48who orchestrates healing by listening to the instructions given on earpiece. I mean,
03:54the entire congregation who are so frenzied and who just turn to him and who have this blind faith
04:02in this man. After a point, it gets really worn out and boring. In fact, Nazria Nazim,
04:08she's known, he's also Fahad Fazal's real life partner and wife. She plays this very troubled
04:13escort. She's like this honey trap. She's this honey trap arranged by two corporate giants,
04:20played by Gautam Menon director and Chemben Vinod Jose. They are the ones who cherry pick
04:26Viju Prasad and turn him into this phony pastor. So basically, they are the ones who control
04:32everything, but they work in the shadows. So they arrange for Nazria's character who plays
04:38Esther Lopez, who's into drugs, partying because of a bad relationship. She's a very girl interrupted
04:45kind of role. It's good to see Nazria try different things. There are certain scenes where
04:49she's seen in the girl interrupted avatar where it seems slightly fake. So that's one of the
04:54downsides of this movie. It's a very bloated movie, which has some sparkling golden moments
04:59by Fahad Fazal as this crazy pastor. I mean, it's great to see him revel as an actor. In fact,
05:06you know, the parts in which he looks into the mirror, he's also mentally disturbed.
05:10And you can see how he's so emotionally volatile. The scenes in which he looks into the mirror,
05:15talks to himself, all of that is brilliantly acted out. And then the problem here is that
05:21this movie places hype and style over substance. The other actors who shine in this film is
05:27Saubin. He plays this crafty journalist who calls the pastor out. Those scenes,
05:32verbal sparring between the principal characters is quite golden to watch. And it's very interesting
05:38and engaging. If you're looking for a miraculous film that satisfies you wholly, then you're
05:42balking up the wrong tree. But I have gone with three out of five. For my full review, go to
05:47gulfnews.com
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