Solo:A mixed Bag

Anthology movies are hard to execute effectively due to time constraints.Bijoy Nambiar deserves a kudos for holding the viewer's attention almost towards the end.Liked his Shaitan so much that all his other felt underwhelming.When Dulquer joins hands with Bijoy Nambiar,expectations are nothing bit sky high.Well its a mixed bag in case of Solo.Certain things worked greatly for the film while others backfired.As the promos suggested,there are 4 stories that are themed into 4 elements-Water,wind,fire and earth.

Coming to the first one,we have a love story between a stammerer and a blind girl.This part has been a bit cheesy and uneven at the beginning.Even Dulquer was not fully convincing as a stammering person.Also the college setup felt pretty awkward at times.Dhansika gave a good performance as the heroine.Their combo scenes went fine.Rest of the cast didn't have much to do even though Soubin evoked some laughter.The emotional content at the end was pretty moving and is the soul of this portion.As the element of this story is water,its presence was evident in many of the frames.DOP and music were top notch here especially the BGM which was featured in the promos and the song by Agam.Considering the whole,World of shekhar can be considered above average and nevertheless was a good start.

Next on the lot is World of Trilok.The element is wind here and its indicated here and there.Neatly edited and slickly dircted,this is the best one in the film.Even though the role was a variation of his role in Theevram, Dulquer handled it very well.World of Trilok belongs to dulquer alone and none of the cast made much impact.

World of Siva can be termed somewhat as a gangster flick where fire is the element.Dulquer has nailed it as Siva with subtle body language and expressions.Personally,his best performance is in this segment.He only mouths few dialogues but portrays immense energy as a rogue.The songs aalayal thara venam by masala coffee is used in the introduction and fits in perfectly.However,Aigiri nandini was excellent during the shootout sequences.The main problem here is the weak characteriation of the heroine and the frames get blurred in some portions which was annoying.World of Siva ends up as a good one baring few hiccups.

The final segment World of Rudra which features Earth as the element is where things go wrong for the film.The ending was puzzling since the dialogues were so casually written that the audience could not recognize if the surprise element was serious because it was unintentionally funny.Dulquer and Neha made a cute pair and the rashomon song were the saving grace here.Dubbing also faultered with dino morea mouthing malayalam dialogues was strange.World of Rudra is the weakest of the four and also placing it as the last hampered the overall mood of the flick.Having a better ending would have worked wonders for the segment and for the film.

Bijoy had almost striked gold in Solo but the weak ending has proved spoilsport for the whole movie.However,Solo is worth looking at as an experimental flick.We also get to see Dulquer in his recent best in various avatars but its devoid of what fans aspire of him.So,be warned.