SOLO - An anthology of human emotions

I had to wait until its’ DVD release to watch this film even though this was in my bucket list since the day it was announced in 2016. The solo reason is Bejoy Nambiar. I became an instant admirer of this guy after watching his debutant feature film ‘Shaitan’, way back in 2011. Shaitan is a cult modern cinematic experience for me that explores the inner demons and dark sides of human beings through a series of events that unfold as a trigger of self-inflicted revulsion in their lives. The film was strong on technical grounds. Absolutely super slow-motion scenes fused with fast paced songs and background scores (still get goose bumps while watching the chase scene that overlaps with ‘Khoya Khoya Chand’), camera being a character, sturdy flash backs & witty narration. I googled about this guy and watched his short film ‘Reflections’ from YouTube and guess what? It features Mohanlal. Reflections was no different from Shaitan. Not on the aspects of storyline or technical grounds but with the making style. A Nambiar’s signature was evident in both these films. Be it David or Wazir, his making style is brilliant.
I read about Solo before its release and even heard from Nambiar’s interviews that it’s an anthology film based on four different elements (Earth, Fire, Wind & Water) with different facets of Lord Shiva. The commonalities in these four segments are many; protagonist has various names of Shiva, each segment opens with an opening shot that signifies the theme (one of the elements) of the segment, each segment has a story that spans over 4 years, each segment deals with twists at the end and relates to an emotion of ‘lost love’. These flavours are evident and anyone could easily pick this up while watching the movie and for me, it’s a big win for the maker who succeeds to connect with the audience. The visuals are good treat for us to watch. In world of Shekhar, water leads the first segment that covers most of the frames. It talks about an intense love story of visually impaired couple with a brilliant making style similar to ‘Reflections’. The closing shot of this segment is DQ & his daughter enjoying the sunset in a beach with a theme music of Kerala ‘vallam’ kali. Second segment, World of Trilok is bit more fast-paced with a gripping screen play and fine performances. Its dark and intense. The third segment, World of Shiva is my favourite one which is based on Fire that talks about a revenge story. The red colour tone throughout this segment holds the essence of fire, burning revenge and subtexts of unexplored lives. The fourth segment World of Rudra depicts the element, Earth. Though there were a lot of scenes that remind us of Manirathnam frames, it scored last amongst the four segment in terms of its screenplay and narration style. DQ… take a bow! You pulled off various emotions; goodness, brutality, heartbreak and compassion so easily with unbelievable performances and screen presence. Not in a single segment you brought the traces from other segments which could have happened with a mere negligence. Govind Menon, you were a big surprise as an actor, kudos!
If you like to watch a film that tells more than ‘just a story’ and in a mood to explore something different, you shouldn’t miss SOLO. (Sounds like a ‘fan’ speaks? well, then it is...J)