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Night Drive: Fasten your seat belts for this thriller-diller

Sometimes, small is big. With Night Drive, Vysakh seems to have operated on this mantra as he delivers a tight thriller filled with performances grounded in reality, unlike his last few outings.

With a simple story, complex screenplay, and no big names to snatch the limelight away from the plot, Night Drive makes for an absolutely engrossing watch from the moment go.

Georgy (Roshan Mathew) and Riya (Anna Ben) are dating each other. They decide to go for a peaceful night drive on Riya's birthday when things go haywire, changing the tone of the night and the movie. The harrowing moments the characters go through make up the plot of Night Drive.

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The movie opens with Georgy, who is an Uber driver, and takes a comic route giving little clues on what's in store.

Vysakh then gradually shifts gears and raises the tension, turning the air into 'full-thriller mode' right at the interval, and leaving the audience glued to their seat.

The second half is all about delivering on the tagline of Night Drive, which is, “The hunted become the hunters”. The crew has done a fabulous job of ensuring the audience feel the tension till the last minute.

The chemistry between Roshan and Anna deserves a special mention, besides their thoroughly convincing individual performances. Indrajith, who plays a police officer, proves yet again that he is grossly underrated in the industry.

Kalabhavan Shajon also delivers a satisfying performance. Siddique, who has been on the lookout for flashy roles recently, catches our attention as the minister who talks in a unique style.

The remaining cast, which includes Renji Panicker, Muthumani, Prasanth Alexander and Santhosh Keezhattoor, have done their bit decently.

Abhilash Pillai, who wrote the screenplay, deserves a pat on the back for presenting the story in a nerve-racking manner.

Shaji Kumar, who is the director of photography, has done a beautiful job capturing the night's eeriness and calmness with his frames. That, coupled with Ranjin Raj's background score, and you have a quality thriller on your hands.

Vysakh, though known for his larger-than-life movies (Pokkiriraja, Pulimurugan), is a director who can experiment with genres of any scale. Movies like Vishudhan and Night Drive are an example of this.

If you're still looking for a hero in Night Drive, it's the story. Making a thriller that resonated with the audience is by no means easy. By successfully establishing a connect with the audience, Vysakh has yet another winner in Night Drive.

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Home » Review » Night Drive movie review: Roshan Mathew, Anna Ben, Indrajith’s unpredictability steer this slick thriller »

Night Drive movie review: Roshan Mathew, Anna Ben, Indrajith’s unpredictability steer this slick thriller

Though Night Drive starts off as an atypical Vysakh thriller and eventually veers towards the director’s familiar territory, the refreshing casting choices do the film a world of good

Sanjith Sidhardhan

Last Updated: 01.06 PM, Mar 11, 2022

Story: Tourism minister Rajan Kurup is set to be arrested by the National Investigation Agency in 24 hours, on grounds of being involved in a gold smuggling case. On the same night, Riya, a journalist who breaks the case, and her boyfriend Georgy lock horns with police officer Benni Moopen and hurt the latter’s ego. But as fate would have it, the duo gets themselves tangled in an accident, which isn’t all that it seems to be. How the lives of Rajan Kurup, Riya, Georgy and Benni Moopen intertwine on the same night and who walks away scot-free at the end of it form the plot of Vysakh’s thriller.

Review: Director Vysakh is synonymous with big budget ‘mass’ entertainers like Pulimurugan and Madhuraraja of late. But at the start of his career through movies such as Seniors, he has also shown he has the uncanny knack of entertaining the audience through a clever mix of twists and ‘mass’ elements, while keeping the audience engaged. Add new-age actors such as Roshan Mathew and Anna Ben, who are mostly known for their realistic films, into the mix and the filmmaker has the advantage of making his characters unpredictable, which works so well in Night Drive that is a refreshing change from his usual entertainers.

The film largely belongs to its three protagonists – Anna, Roshan and Indrajith Sukumaran – and Abhilash Pillai, who has written its script, uses the aforementioned unpredictability to the hilt to keep the story moving in riveting fashion. For both Anna and Roshan, it’s a new genre and both prove that they are more than capable of acing it. As Georgy, a good-natured Uber driver who is pushed to the corner after an accident and multiple attempts to frame him and Riya for a crime, Vysakh gives Roshan enough room to play a character that he has hitherto not done. It’s also what drives the ‘mass’ elements of the film and Roshan’s star turn is delightful.

Also read: Exclusive! Vysakh: Anna Ben, Roshan Mathew were so natural in Night Drive that I wished I had used sync sound

Anna too seems to have fun with her character of a journalist who doesn’t back down. In fact, in the first half, it’s Anna who gets the best scenes, especially during her stand-off with circle inspector Benni Moopen. Indrajith, who plays the cop in the film, proves again why he’s the most versatile character around – handling all shades of his character seamlessly, while also letting his co-stars have their space. Credit must be given to the writer and filmmaker for showing the different sides of the characters while weaving in their past and present in a story that is set in just one night.

While the first half is an engrossing thriller with enough elements of comedy and romance, the latter half slows down as it focuses on the investigation and the set-up of the crime. This is where the movie moves towards Vysakh’s familiar territory of a ‘mass’ entertainer – with kidnapping, fights in a warehouse and punch dialogues. The novelty here stems from the fact that the characters who elevate these sequences aren’t whom the audience are used to seeing. Apart from the trio, Siddique, who plays the minister, and Prashant Alexander, who is the comic relief in the film, also get notable screen time.

Shaji Kumar’s cinematography is slick, with its blue tones, and editor Sunil S Pillai ensures that the film is paced just right for a thriller that has enough twists. Ranjin Raj music also boosts the ‘mass’ scenes.

Verdict: Though Night Drive starts off as an atypical Vysakh thriller and eventually veers towards the director’s familiar territory, the refreshing casting choices do the film a world of good in making it entertaining. At less than two hours, the movie makes for a good, breezy thriller.

Also read: Pada movie review: Kamal KM prioritises core issue over thrills in Kunchacko Boban’s no-frills hostage drama