A weak attempt at creating a psychological thriller, Nizhal feels drab from its very first shot - doused in bizarre-looking CGI. The core plot does intrigue, but there's an entire act dedicated to the protagonist's PTSD which gets conveniently ignored and has zero payoffs in the end. What was even the point? The mask, the rains, the atrociously loud background score - all of it feels gimmicky as hell. Nayanthara is criminally underutilized here - there's nothing in Nizhal that truly challenges the actor in return for a nice, fat paycheck. The script contains psychological thriller elements but the way they're visualized on-screen is lacklustre. I'm disappointed by Appu N Bhattathiri's directorial debut - this is clearly no edge-of-the-seat thriller.
Review of Nizhal
