
The story of Red Wine revolves around two characters. One is Anoop (played by Fahad Fazil), who is a theatre artist by profession and the second one is Rameshan (played by Asif Ali) who is a sales executive of an automobile company. Anoop is a man whose hometown is Wayanad. He is a much disciplined individual and is committed to drams and other social issues. Ramesh on the other hand lives in Kozhikode and leads his own life peacefully without bothering anybody else. Although the lives of these two strangers do not match, there lies a connection between them that is unknown to both. The story takes a twist when an incident brings the investigation officer, Ratheesh Vasudevan (played by Mohanlal) to the screen. The story which follows this is full of thrills and suspense. These make the movie an interesting watch till the end. We also see Anoop’s classmates Navas (played by Saiju Kurup) and Sree Lekshmi, Navas’s wife (played by Anusree), in pivotal roles in the film.
Being the most anticipated Mollywood movie, the movie saw loads of audience in the theatres who went to watch their favorite actors play on the silver screen. at the start of the film, the theatres were packed as the people gathered to watch one of the most awaited films of the year. However, if one analyses the film critically, he will find that the new director has various areas to be worked upon and requires much more skill while he is directing a film. The story of the film is way too old. It revolves around the case of a murder. Now, the Malayali audience has been viewing such films for at least three decades. Hence, something fresh and new was naturally wanted. Although the take off was excellent, after some time it movie tumbled down the expectations that had been build. The suspense that the director had brought about in the first phase of the movie seemed to vanish in the second phase. The thrill of the movie that had been created initially seemed to end with no surprise at all.
The movie saw the display of brilliant talent by Fahad Fazil. With his excellent skill he brought life to the character of Anoop. He stole the show with his acting. His way of throwing dialogues, and the various actions that he showed on the screen made the audience grip their chairs with immense anticipation. The character of Remeshan, played by Asif could have been much better than what it was. Asif’s talents were not exposed as it should have. Needless to say, the best performance delivered in the movie was by Mohanlal. However, is limited on screen presence left the audience wanting for more. Many are of the view that if the movie contained less number of characters it could have been way better. For some time it seemed that the director was not able to handle the characters well.
On the technical part we see some excellent cinematography by Manoj Pillai and some brilliant art direction by Santhosh Raman. The music delivered by Bijibal was impressive but nothing out of the world. In a nutshell, Red Wine is a movie that could not match up to the expectation that the audience had set for it. It could have been more polished. However, it managed to make the audience leave the theaters smiling, although not for a long time.
Verdict: Above average
Rating: 3/5