Review of Trance

Trance (I) (2020)
7/10
A psychedelic trip made with love, albeit dragged down by it's sub-par screenplay
5 March 2020
Trance has one of the best shot moments in the entirety of malayalam cinema. It's the scene where the film was at it's peak, only to hurdle down a never ending hill. It's not the 'perfect' in the story department, but they blew it apart technically. Every single shot in Trance is otherworldly. In a sense, even if you don't pay attention to the story, your money is gonna be well spent on the visuals alone. Amal Neerad knocked it out of the park with his godly cinematography. It's a masterclass combination is what it is. Amal Neerad-Anwar Rasheed combo was the best thing that happened to malayalam cinema this year. Anwar Rasheed has commandeered a film of a big canvas, he strutted it around long enough for the film to be 'perfect'. In a way, the screenplay dragged down a film that was worthy of becoming a classic in Malayalam cinema.

Fahadh was the limelight and he did his role justice. Viju Prasad/Joshua Calton was brought to life by his best performance in his career (personal opinion). Nazriya felt like an unneeded addition to an already spectacular cast. Soubin, Sreenath Bhasi, Vinayakan were all well utilised although having very limited screen time. Joju George appeared on screen for about 10 seconds and that is that. There was no more of Joju George in the film. I don't think there was even a name for his character. Chemban Vinod was just his persona yet again, a monotonous performance. Gautham Menon did good. Dileesh Pothan stood apart from the secondary characters as he received more screen time and dialogues as Avarachan.

Trance uses heavy display of colours. I couldn't have worded that better. Colours were popping out of nowhere. Don't watch Trance while high. You're just going to be more stoned after the film.

Trance fails hard in connecting the dots and summing up the storylines it started. Nazriya's character arc was pretty much screwed from the beginning. It almost felt that the 2nd half of the film was rushed, although that is not the case.

Trance is something that is going to be landmark in Malayalam cinema. Not because of how good it is, but because how beautiful it is. No malyalam film could compete with Trance in terms of it's visuals.
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