The Rainmaker

Movie : Winter
Language : Malayalam
Date : 21 July, 2009.

Review
Horror is one of the classic genres that movies have been made in, since time immemorial. Dipu's directorial debut 'Winter' is a horror flick as well. Having been in the cans for over 3-4 years now, 'Winter' looks a bit back in time but the genuine problems of the movie are not to do with being delayed but with the story telling methods.

Cliche Backdrop
When 'Winter' was in the cans, a superbly impressive movie named 'Yavarum Nalam' came to the screens. It was so impressive because it tried to create horror out of a TV Serial which was so relatable to each and every one of us, yet different. 'Bhooth' also was very impressive because as Ramu said, he deliberately wanted to bring horror to the city and in a flat which is how people live nowadays.What 'Winter' does is try to go back and create a cliché horror backdrop by taking the unconvincing reason of a child's psychopathic problems to shift a family to a horror generating isolated bungalow. What follows is a cooked up setting where each motion of any object is just conspired to create horror.

Gimmicks Galore
From the loud door bell to the scary faced house keeper. You name the horror movie gimmick and its all there in 'Winter'. Gimmicks to create horror are fine to the point that if the audience feels that the director is getting along with the real story as the time passes. But the problem with 'Winter' is that the horror gimmicks do not finish and the story telling reaches no where. Interval point brings in some respite and is a good one as well. Dipu has tried his best at creating horror via sound effects (mainly) and also some weird camera angles. He succeeds to some extent in keeping the audience at tender hooks.

Performances
Jayaram is competent with a natural performance of a family man. Bhavana is irritating sometimes but by and large she is ok. The 2 kids could really have been better in terms or performances. TG Ravi does his horrifying house keeper act to the best.Manoj K Jayan is passé.

Technical Aspects
BGM has tried real hard to create the horror and many a times goes over the top. Cinematography could have been better for a horror flick.There is only 1 song which looks a bit out of place. Better editing could have been done to make the movie crisper. Direction considering that its a debut is notable but it needs thinking to understand how the same person made 'Crazy Gopalan' after this one.

Conclusion
‘Winter’ is no great cinema and could have been way better but it neither is unbearable as well. Dipu has some talent for sure and needs right direction from here on.The biggest plus for ‘Winter’ is that the audience go in with zero expectations and find themselves just about ok at the end.

VERDICT - 2.5/ 5 and an AVERAGE rating for ‘Winter’.

‘Winter’ - A somewhat better debut for Dipu than being ‘Crazy’.!!!