Of these, the most fun is when you’re listening to Prithviraj play a retired gunda named Hari Bhai. Given that Shaji Kailas’ Kaapa is so fresh in our memory, I caught myself imagining a Shaji Kailas’ cinematic universe where Kotta Madhu (Prithviraj’s Thiruvananthapuram-based gangster in Kaapa) collabbed with Kalidas from Alone for another film. But let’s keep that nightmare for another day.
The reason why you turn against Alone so harshly is because you genuinely feel the lack of effort that has gone in. It’s as though they have decided that closeups and mannerisms of Mohanlal are enough to hold our attention for two hours. In one shot, we zoom in on the star’s eyes so closely that it looks embarrassing. We get angles of him shot from the ground, the ceiling, from behind and from between his legs. As always, you get the sense that Shaji Kailas still believes filmmaking is an exhibition of the weirdest camera angles. This includes one nauseating drone shot that takes you from the road, through the gate and into the building at a super quick pace. We also get dozens of absurd angles that are consciously shaky or titled, only to get us to notice the filmmaking “style”. What this reveals is how the filmmaker is trying the mask the lack of fresh information by overcompensating with complex camera work and loud pointless music.