Malik
On: Amazon Prime Video
Dir: Mahesh Narayanan
Cast: Fahadh Faasil, Nimisha Sajayan, Vinay Fortt
Rating: 4/5

This film starts with what can only be considered a master-class for shooting a supposedly single-take shot, lasting over 10 minutes! The camera, like a dragonfly, goes in and out of private rooms and semi-public spaces, across the walled mansion of Don Ali, in a fictional settlement/town called Ramadappally in Kerala. There is an elaborate feast going on, in this introductory scene. Which might well be inspired by The Godfather.

What follows, along with opening credits, is an equally arresting sequence set in the airport. Where the same don gets picked up. Cops wait for him to get past security. Which means he’s totally unarmed. He’s casually weeded out of his travelling group, right before the aircraft’s boarding gate — isolated; and boom, sent off to prison, I guess? Not saying more.