Neelavelicham Twitter review: Netizens praise Tovino Thomas, Ashiq Abu; swoon over film’s visuals

Ashiq Abu’s highly awaited Neelavelicham finally hit theatres today. The film, which is the adaptation of Vaikom Muhammad Basheer’s short story of the same name, stars Tovino Thomas and Rima Kallingal in lead roles. Suffice to say, the upcoming film had generated a lot of buzz and a number of netizens who watched the film on the day of its release took to Twitter to talk about the same.

A number of viewers praised the visuals of the film and Girish Gangadharan’s cinematography. One user referred to the film as a ‘brilliant remake of a cult classic’, referring to 1964’s Bargavi Nilayam, which was the first adaptation of Basheer’s short story. They also praised Abu for recreating the film while making sure the magic of the original was not lost. ‘Aesthetic’ was a term a number of viewers used to describe the film.

Some netizens expressed their displeasure with the pace of the film, especially the first half, and some of them were not impressed with some parts of the storytelling either. “The story was too predictable and screenplay was lengthy, specially flash back scenes”, wrote one user.

Coming to performances, Tovino received almost unanimous praise for his performance as Basheer. A user wrote “Tovino, despite looking a tad too masculine to be a Basheer, was convincing”. While some users appreciated Rima’s performance as well, viewers seemed to be divided over Shine Tom Chacko’s portrayal.

The music and background score of the film was appreciated by a number of viewers as well.

Check out some of the reactions below:

The review of the film on OTTplay reads “Aashiq, through the surreal frames of Girish Gangadharan and score of Bijibal and Rex Vijayan, transport the audience to this world so seamlessly and keep you engrossed for a considerable amount of time”.

Neelavelicham, which also stars Roshan Mathew, is now showing in theatres.