'Arikil Oraal' is the second film from director Sunil Ibrahaim, whose debut venture `Chapters' was applauded well. Here he attempts for a psychological thriller, which but doesn't make the needed impact due to the predictability factor and handling of some crucial sequences towards the last hour.
The movie has Indrajith as Sidharth, an extremely creative guy working as the creative head of an advertising agency. He has been recently transferred to Kochy where he loves to spend quality time with his beautiful danseuse girlfriend Veena (Remya Nambeesan). Veena also makes necessary arrangements for his stay with Ichaa (Nivin Pauly), a dear friend who works in a cafe in the city.They had some merry time as friends till Sidharth starts to spot Ichaa in different places at the same time. Initially embarrassed over the identity of the man who is staying with him, Siddharth starts on a journey to unleash what is behind the paranormal activity surrounding Ichaa.
The movie juices the concept of a doppelganger and succeds in creating suspense and needed confusion in the initial reels. But the treatment in the second half with not much to tell apart from the few characters in the lead, takes out the steam with which it was propelling. As of now, the movie manages to keep you engaged and ends up as an average thriller for everyone who haven't watched multitude of films with similar thinking lanes. Another downfall of 'Arikil Oraal' is that it doesn't give any big solid reasons for the happenings around and asks the viewers to take it as lightly as it is told. A little more of fine tuning in the writing department could have made another fine psychological thriller for which the director could have been proud of.
In the performance list, Nivin Pauly maintains his cool to make a demanding role look easy. He is the most believable of the threesome, which makes the movie work to a certain extent. Indrajith and Remya Nambeesan deliver proficient performances though Prathap Pothen and Lena appears disinterested. The technical sides are good with some good visuals from Krish Kymal supported by saajan in editing. The songs by Gopi SUndar are good though his BG scores appears average, this time. Overall, this `Arikil Oraal' is a movie that can be seen without big expectations. | 
