Winter was originally planned as the debut movie of its director Deepu karunakaran.But as you call it the good fate, this came late after his Dileep movie '"Crazy Gopalan '' which was a hit with the masses. Any how, this offering in this rainy season ''an intended horror movie also showcases the sparkles of his creativity as a director, even though in a lame regular story of the ''haunted house.
The movie which was shot a couple of years ago has Jayaram as Dr.Ramdas a surgeon in a super specialty hospital at AndraPradesh. He lives a quiet but busy life with his wife Shyama (Bhavana) and two small daughters. As their eldest daughter finds its hard to cope up with the life in town, the decide to shift to a new bungalow, a perfect big setting for the genre, in a deserted village, with large interiors and beautiful exteriors. The incidents that follow from the day one ,puts the couple in a fix which leads them to a Vasthu theorist.He gives scientific explanations to all the happenings and does the deeds to clear off the problems.But the couple hardly realises that there are more ominous forces at work which are giving them sleepless scary nights .
Deepu has made a good research upon the horror flicks of RGV and John Carpenter and has recreated the techniques and effective gimmicks that can leave a chill down your spine , in the every second minute.And there are plenty of unexpected screaming door bells, terrifying background scores by Benny and plenty of darker ,barely lit sequences.And the movie is indeed impressive in the first hour where you smell a real story behind the happenings . But it is here the flick falter, with hardly any credible storyline to narrate and justifications to at least something on screen.
Apart from the decent visuals from JayaKrishnan Gummudy slickly edited by Arunkumar , the big highlight of the movie is its soundtrack designed by Harikumar and Rajakrishnan ably supported by Benny in the BG scores. This seems to be the first movie in Malayalam which had prepared a proper sound scheme even before shooting and it shows its brilliance and often gives a feel of overly done sound effects , mismatching the relatively average visual experience. The only song in the movie by debutante Rajakrishnan is average.
Jayaram makes a cake walk through the entire proceedings while expressions of Bhavana and her poor dubbing, doesn't comes up to the mark. Manoj K Jayan and T G Ravi are in their regular roles.
Had Deepu ,who is also the scriptwriter of the movie , given a little more importance to built up a better refreshing thread and proper reasoning for the loopholes in the plot , Winter'' would have been one of the good horror thrillers of Malayalam. Anyhow, not a total letdown , the movie is advisable in parts, but strictly , for the lovers of the genre.
