Bramayugam review: An impressive blend of patriarchal horror thriller

Synopsis: A young folklore singer enters the 'Mana' of a mysterious man named Kundomon Potti, the head of the house as his guest. As he gets to know more about him and the backstory of the house, he tries to escape. Will Potti allow him to do so or will he be trapped in the mansion?

Cast: Mammootty, Arjun Ashokan, Sidharth Bharathan, Amalda Liz, Manikandan R. Achari.

Director: Rahul Sadasivan

Music director: Christo Xavier

Rating: 4/5

Director Rahul Sadasivan is yet again exploring the haunted mansion theme but is quite different from his previous film 'Bhoothakalam' as it was more of dealing with our own past, but Bramayugam (The Age of Madness) is more of a black and white film, in the horror-thriller genre to explore the power pattern in history.

Bramayugam starts with a different timeline set in the 17th century south Malabar region where Arjun Ashokan (Thevan) and Manikandan (Kora) are stuck in a forest. Manikandan feels something is wrong about the forest and at night, he sees a character played by Amalda but a scared Thevan runs away.

While running he enters the 'Mana' (Mansion), and meets Mammootty (Kundomon Potti) and Sidharth Bharathan who acts as a slave to Potti, Thevan, a folklore singer from Pannan caste (lower caste) begins his backstory. Kundomon Potti, an aristocratic man, abodes him to the house for the stay but his character leaves a mystery behind.

As the film progresses, Thevan goes through horrifying experiences at night. With just Potti and his slave in that old house, the stay wasn’t that comfortable for Thevan, and what we see in the film is his efforts to escape from that place.

It's in the second half that reveals the real motive with its twists and turns gives a haunting experience as the story unfolds in the end.

In terms of the color grading, the film is set in ancient time that reminds of flashbacks to express that Rahul has chosen to make it Black and white as the story demands in the film.

It is the thought of the director that epitomises the audience to watch the film and interestingly an additional factor is the black and white experience. Rahul's idea of structuring every dialogue and situation that has the classic horror film texture gets to be reinterpreted once the political play in comparison with the Ruling and working class conflicts comes in the film.

With Rahul’s direction and T. D. Ramakrishnan script is structured in a way that every dialogue and situation that has the classic horror film texture gets to be reinterpreted once the political play becomes clear to us in the end.

Mammootty doesn't shy away from exploring once again with his eccentric tone of a Sorcerer character, which allows one to make sense once we get to know that character in detail. Mammootty's voice modulation and sudden change of expression adds a layer to Kundomon Potti.

Arjun Ashokan and Siddharth Bharathan have conveyed the character brilliantly in terms of body language.

Here, special mention to sound, which plays a more prominent role as Christo Xavier pulls up with his scores building the ambience for the story. The art department is exceptionally good regarding certain subjects which helped the story to move forward in the film.

Clocking at two hour and 19 minutes, Bramayugam manages to be an engaging dark horror thriller with layers of power politics,commendable performances, and impressive making.