Koimoi Recommends Overtake (Lockdown Watch): Vijay Babu Starrer That Actually Belongs To Its Cinematographer
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Koimoi Recommends Overtake: what comes to your mind when you hear the road movie genre? A car, scenic beauty, speed, or slowing it down, characters, their stories. Now add a stranger here following you to kill you. Well, that is Overtake. A suspense thriller starring Vijay Babu that has made it to our recommendation just for the immaculate camera work and thrills in instalments. Today in Koimoi Recommends, let’s talk about the 2017 Malayalam movie Overtake.
Koimoi Recommends Overtake (Lockdown Watch): Vijay Babu Starrer That Actually Belongs To Its Cinematographer
(PS: promise, no spoilers!)
So we meet Nandan (Vijay Babu), a man with a happy life, a successful business, and is a bright entrepreneur. Nandan is relocating to Kerala from Bangalore and is in the process to sell and handover his business. Then comes a day when he sets out on a road journey with his wife Radhika (Parvathy Nair), and this is where the ‘Overtake’ begins. A stranger starts following them and is on a mission to kill the two. Who is he? Why is he trying to kill them? Will he succeed?
First of all, I am not going to pick fights with strangers ever, second short cuts will never be my choice, Thank you, John! So let’s begin, so just to give you an example of why this scenario petrifies. Imagine yourself in a car and a giant size carrier, almost one resembling a Mad Max: Furry Road vehicle following you. Well, congratulations, we are on this boat.
Overtake starring Vijay Babu and Parvathy isn’t a film that depends on its actors or dialogues, it is a detailed work of a cinematographer and the editor. And here both of them have excelled with flying colours. The frames are always moving, it’s a chase and that too on narrow roads. There’s too much to capture, the surrounding, the characters, their emotions, the to and fro and many more things. I can’t even imagine the planning that has gone into this.
Overtake Cinematographer Ajayan Vincent captures all of this in detail. He with the writers and director place this chase in almost no man’s land. Just three characters, one of which is a vehicle for most of the time. Amid all this, there is also a quest that who the killer is.
Koimoi Recommends Overtake (Lockdown Watch): Vijay Babu Starrer That Actually Belongs To Its Cinematographer
And this is where the writing in Overtake comes in. Writer Anil Kunhappan cleverly plants characters that are potential killers throughout. Just like you, Nandan and Radhika are also trying to figure out his identity. Though a lot is predictable, the thrills in instalments do a job to not really focus on that. Plus point for setting this story in broad daylight, it would have been a challenge. Because night gives you the liberty to show even the busiest areas to be empty. But with the day, there are limitations.
As said, Overtake is a cinematographer’s film. Vijay Babu brings in his caliber and gives the film his best. Parvathy though looks uncomfortable saying her lines.
All in all, Overtake deserves a watch. Feel the thrill and the amazing camera work. Sit through the end credits to witness the village that has gone into making this 2-hour long film.
Overtake Star Rating: 3/5 Stars (Three Stars)
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