Balan movie review: A ‘survival’ drama that impresses in first half, but stumbles in second

In a way, director Chidambaram’s Balan: The Boy also emphasises this idea. But not in an ultra-violent way, as one might assume a movie with such a story would. Rather, Balan maintains without any bloodshed that those determined to survive will do so, no matter what. The boy (portrayed as a child by Adhisheshan and as a teenager by Muhammed Zinaan) and his mother (a mesmerising Farzana Palathingal) embody this mindset.

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Nobody except them knows their true identities. They assume different names and backstories whenever they move into a new environment. In fact, Balan (the boy) and Amma (the mother) no longer care about their original names. Balan is often thrilled to get new names and backstories. Amma’s sole aim is to ensure they lead a life unbothered by others. However, every time they start afresh, some man will appear out of nowhere, offering to accept them as his own owing to “sympathy” for them, or expose their previous identities. Dialogues such as “From now on, you can live at my home as my daughter,” “Will you be my wife? I will raise your son as my own,” and “Wait a minute, I have seen you somewhere,” come their way often, prompting the two to shed their current identities and flee.

Although Amma and Balan have no fear of lying, the fact that their lives are in a perpetual state of fight-or-flight does disturb them. That’s when Amma lands a job as a home nurse to look after an elderly woman (Dolly June) who lives alone in a faraway hilly village. Although the Ammoomma (the elderly woman) is known to be erratic and has a big temper, Amma grows close to her, realising that they may more or less be the same person: cruel only to those who patronise or assert power over them. But when her past comes back to haunt Amma, she is forced to resort to some extreme measures, leading to her separation from Balan. But can anyone truly separate them?

Watch Balan’s trailer here:

In all honesty, Jithu Madhavan deserves immense commendation for treating this story as essentially a drama with only adequate thriller elements, only to keep the audience engaged, while anyone else in his position might have tried to go all ballistic and make it an out-and-out psychological thriller, attempting yet another homage to Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960).

Neither Chidambaram nor Jithu try to play to the gallery or satisfy the so-called “expectations” people might have from them, being the creators of Manjummel Boys and Aavesham, respectively. From the start, they remain honest to the world they wish to create and offer a treatment that’s in tune. They don’t rush or slip in thrilling moments at regular intervals to provide viewers with an adrenaline rush. Instead, they focus on the organic progression of the story, which naturally pushes the audience to the edge of their seats even when the moments aren’t particularly nail-biting.

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Even the psychological elements in the narrative, including Amma’s conditioning of Balan and his childhood traumas, as well as the underlying themes, aren’t very heavy-handed. The makers maintain a powerful restraint, rendering the movie impressive. From the gradual shift in Balan’s nature — upon realising what he has been missing out on due to their transient lifestyle — and the juxtaposition of Amma and Ammoomma to slowly reveal the similarities between them, illustrating how the world around them shaped who they are, to Balan’s subservience to people who love him and lie to him about a better tomorrow, the movie presents hard-hitting themes in a nuanced and impactful manner.

Much like director Fazil Razak’s Thadavu (2025), Balan also portrays grey-shaded, unapologetic women without putting them under a microscope or subjecting them to judgment from the creators. Just as Geetha (Beena R Chandran) existed with all her flaws in Thadavu, Balan’s Amma and Ammoomma do as well.

The beauty of Balan, which exemplifies the rapport between Chidambaram and Jithu, is that even when a murder occurs, we don’t see the actual act on screen. In fact, we don’t even see the blood; the shot only shows Amma scrubbing a floor made of red oxide. Even without on-the-nose portrayals, the makers highlight the tension through impressive staging and, above all, the extraordinary performances.

But all that happens in the first half. Once we are introduced to teen Balan — who is mostly engaged in a battle with the crooked and ruthless cop Pavithran (an impressive Jean Paul Lal) — and also see the kid’s life after being separated from Amma, during which he is raised by a thief named Abbas (Tovino Thomas), the movie’s tone abruptly changes, and not in an impressive manner. While it could be argued that one’s life conditions, their nature, and even the people around them won’t be the same throughout, resulting in a drastic change in tone, the issue with Balan is that the shift isn’t seamless. In fact, the two halves of the film feel like they belong to two different works with the same characters.

Worse still, while the writing in the first half exuded significant confidence — where even when key information was withheld from us, it didn’t appear as plot holes — the script becomes considerably weak in the second half. The major issue is that the subtlety and tension present in the first half pretty much vanish in the latter part, and Balan’s focus gratuitously shifts to shenanigans rather than actions. Another major problem is that while the inseparable bond between Amma and Balan becomes very apparent early on, the same connection between Abbas and Balan, which the movie tries to claim exists, isn’t conveyed in the same way. As a result, their eventual actions and the impact they have on each other don’t resonate much with the viewer.

Even Chidambaram’s filmmaking appears evidently confused here, as the character-driven storytelling until then takes a backseat to make way for action-driven storytelling. This shift gives more prominence to what the characters can do rather than to the narrative’s cohesive progression. The eeriness created by the slowness and minimalism in the first half is replaced by packed frames and faster-paced movements, forcing us to watch the actions of characters who haven’t made much of an impact on us. Another key issue is that the movie doesn’t hook us into teen Balan as much as it did with child Balan. While Pavithran is revealed as a ruthless man who won’t think twice about throwing his “lover” under the bus or plotting revenge against a child, Balan fails to develop its villain sufficiently to elicit the desired reactions from the audience.

While Balan is an impressive title for the movie, particularly since that was the name of the first talkie in Malayalam (1938), wouldn’t it have made more sense to name the Chidambaram directorial Vigathakumaran (The Lost Child), the name of the first-ever Malayalam feature film? Regardless, it is noteworthy that Chidambaram and Jithu used this title, as the 1938 Balan (a lost film) is, according to NFAI, the first to introduce many of early Malayalam cinema’s recurring archetypes, including the evil stepmother and innocent orphans. In a way, it could be said that Chidambaram and Jithu subverted these portrayals after 88 years under the same title. After all, do we even know if Amma is the actual mother of Balan?

Balan’s biggest strength is Shyju Khalid’s extraordinary cinematography, which elevates the storytelling through judicious and strategic camera angles and movements. He doesn’t rely on too many close-ups; not that he seldom comes too close to the characters. Instead, Shyju finds his moments well and ensures that the surroundings communicate just as much as the characters do. Ajayan Chalissery’s uncompromising production design and Srik Varrier’s phenomenal colouring also deserve immense praise for accentuating the movie’s essence. Vivek Harshan’s masterful editing, particularly during the impressive original songs composed by Sushin Shyam, is also top-notch.

After a couple of dull performances, Tovino hits a home run in Balan. Abbas is one of those characters that you know only a Malayalam star would play, as it doesn’t give them even a single chance to look cool, polished, or sexy on screen. Adhisheshan impresses as the child Balan, while the movie belongs entirely to Farzana Palathingal, who has delivered one of the finest performances in Malayalam cinema this year. Director Girish AD, as a police officer, and Beena Antony, as a sex worker, also perform their parts astonishingly well.

Balan movie cast: Adhisheshan, Farzana Palathingal, Tovino Thomas, Muhammed Zinaan, Dolly June, Jean Paul Lal, Girish AD, Beena Antony
Balan movie director: Chidambaram
Balan movie rating: 3 stars