Alyad Palyad Movie Review
Rating: ⭐️⭐️
Plot: Everyone stays away from the island village for three days every year. But three friends along with their boatman get stuck accidentally.
Director: Pritam Sk Patil
Writer: Sanjay Navgire, Pritam Sk Patil
Music: Rigved Kulkarni, Amit Patil
Cast: Saksham Kulkarni, Makarand Deshpande, Gaurav More, Sandeep Pathak, Suresh Vishwakarma, Bhagyam Jain, Anushka Pimputkar, Madhuri Pawar
Alyad Palyad Movie Review
Either the timing of the release is wrong or they have got the formula wrong. Alyad Palyad is the Marathi equivalent of the horror comedy Munjya. Both of them are set in Konkan and both of them fall in the same genre. Jumping the horror comedy trend, Alyad Palyad, falls just short of a complete package.
Set in Konkan, an island village has a popular belief of staying out of the village for 3 specific days every year. All the villagers move out of the village and stay beyond the river for those particular three days. It is said that the spirits lurk out in the village during these days and attack if anyone is seen roaming around. This year too, everyone in the village has moved across the river as the three days are here.
Three friends, Kishya-Pankya-Chatur, are visiting the village. The village is the hometown of Pankya. Since it’s the spooky period, they all get bored and are not able to enjoy openly in the village. They decide to get back to the village and video shoot the village proving the villagers wrong. Somehow they manage to convince a boatman to take them across the village. All four of them cross the river and enter the village.
Little do they know that along with them the daughter of the Sarpanch has also jumped in the boat and has entered the village with them. All 5 of them, struck by the horrors, try to survive one attack after the other. Will someone come to their rescue or will they die as written in the prophecy is how the movie goes forward.
The premise, on the first reading, felt very interesting and even the trailer seemed fun. But as they say, all that shines is not gold. Everything fun is packed in the trailer and there is not much fun remaining in the film. Very mediocre jump scares and meagre comedy just kills the vibe of the film.
The direction by Pritam Patil is below average and feels half hearted because of the way he deals with horror and comedy. The trend of horror comedy works purely because of the balance it creates. Alyad Palyad fails to balance it out and collapses because of the same. The flashback scenes depicting the history of the village are very very slow paced.
The second half almost picks up but is still is not entertaining enough. The cinematography too feels disappointing. The background music is also not that good to keep you on the edge of the seat. The film lacks in all the technical departments. And what shines are the performances of the lead cast.
The lead actress Madhuri Pawar is just lost on the screen. Makarand Deshpande shines as the Aghori. Sandeep Phatak and Gaurav More are at their comic best. Other primary characters are forgettable.
All in all, Alyad Palyad is definitely not what we’d like Marathi Cinema to represent in the horror-comedy genre. Munjya won’t let the meak ghosts of Alyad Palyad survive the box office!
