Otta movie review: Resul Pookutty’s Asif Ali, Indrajith-starrer is an overstretched semi-biographical infomercial

The film supposedly revolves around Hari (Asif Ali) and Ben (Arjun Ashokan), who have left their homes due to their respective parents’ harsh and toxic upbringing. Their journey takes them from Palakkad to Chennai, where they hope to establish new lives and find their own spaces. During their time there, they encounter Raju (Indrajith Sukumaran), a man making a living at a construction site. The rest of the film follows their journeys.

While the film attempts to tackle pertinent issues, such as toxic parenting and male sexual abuse, its lack of a cohesive story, let alone a well-developed script, prevents it from effectively conveying anything.

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Right from the start, Otta gives the impression that the audiences have entered midway into the story, with little effort made to introduce us to the characters or the moments. Each scene begins and ends abruptly, without proper context. For example, in the first act, the audiences only witness Hari facing his father’s harsh treatment whenever he displeases him. On the other hand, Ben’s story seems to start from the middle, without a backstory. Though the film, through unnecessarily subdued or subtilised dialogues and moments, shows that his mother is controlling and toxic, and his father is seemingly ‘helpless’, it fails to provide any substantial context for these dynamics. The lacklustre dialogues also contribute to the overall inability to convey meaningful character development. This issue persists across all characters, including Raju, leaving them all incomplete and underdeveloped.

Simultaneously, the movie’s handling of serious issues such as toxic parenting, male sexual abuse, and rape is notably juvenile, and hence extremely problematic. Initially, the film depicts the parents as the catalysts for Hari and Ben’s departure from their homes. However, as the narrative progresses, the film begins to sympathise with these elderly characters. Conversely, when Ben retaliates against his sexually abusive boss, the film portrays the abuser justifying his actions by claiming he too had undergone similar experiences and “never deemed them wrong”. The film abruptly ends this track here, seemingly endorsing the abuser’s perspective.

In another pivotal scene, Hari witnesses a co-worker raping a woman in the bakery where they work. Shocked to the core, Hari leaves the scene emotionally shattered. The film then cuts to an emotional song from Hari’s point of view, without addressing the plight of the assaulted woman. The film thus sidelines her and focuses solely on Hari’s perceived ‘trauma’ from witnessing the incident, reflecting a typical male-centric depiction of such crimes.

In another abrupt moment towards the end, Ben, who has lost touch with Hari, calls him to tell him not to contact him again when he plans to return home with his parents. This moment is sure to leave one wondering, “Why ask not to be contacted when there was no attempt from the other person to contact in the first place? What’s the point?” Like this, Otta jumps haphazardly from one moment to the next, failing to convey anything.

With a multitude of characters, Otta presents numerous scenes that seemingly lack connections to their preceding or succeeding counterparts. (Image: Arjun Ashokan/Facebook)

In the end, Otta reveals that its story is inspired by the life of S Hariharan, the founder of the Samathol rehabilitation centre for children who run away from their homes. Interestingly, Hariharan has also bankrolled the film, creating the impression that Otta is essentially an overstretched semi-biographical infomercial.

Despite Resul Pookutty’s legendary status as a sound designer, Otta fails to showcase his directorial prowess anywhere. The fact that he kept on filming scene after scene without realising the movie’s lack of substance and coherent narrative is unfortunate. While Kiron Prabhakaran is credited as the writer, watching Otta prompts one to question if it even had a story or script to begin with, giving the impression that the makers simply had a few ideas and went with the flow.

Otta also highlights the unlucky streak of Indrajith Sukumaran as an actor, since whenever he delivers a commendable performance, the fate of the film seems to be compromised either through overall flaws or poor box office performance. Despite his skilful portrayal of Raju, Indrajith’s honest performance is hampered by the inadequately developed character. In the case of Asif Ali, Otta is a much better upgrade compared to his extremely mediocre performance in the recent Kasargold. While Arjun Ashokan’s character has depth and darkness, the contrived nature of Ben’s moments and characterisation hinders him from leaving a lasting impression. Sathyaraj, Indrans and Rohini, on the other hand, manage to elevate their underdeveloped characters to a mediocre level with their performances.

However, one of the significant highlights of Otta is Arun Varma’s cinematography, skillfully capturing the essence and intricacies of the various places depicted in the film, primarily set in the 2000s era. Cyril Kuruvila’s commendable production design also deserves recognition for maintaining consistency in this regard.

Additionally, the film stands out by incorporating diverse dialects for its Malayali characters and featuring characters from different regions, lending it a sense of authenticity often lacking in movies where all characters speak a region-neutral language. M Jayachandran’s music also contributes to the movie, preventing it from descending into complete despair.

In short, Otta demonstrates that even with a team of brilliant technicians and actors, a film is destined to collapse without a strong foundation comprising a well-developed story and script.

Otta cast: Asif Ali, Indrajith Sukumaran, Arjun Ashokan, Sathyaraj, Indrans
Otta director: Resul Pookutty
Otta rating: 1 star