Level Cross Movie Review: Oscillates between the outlandish and the mundane

As Chaithali (Amala Paul) tries to escape the endlessly undulating sands of the Sahara in Arfaz Ayub’s debut feature Level Cross, one might think this film would be a survival thriller, but it is far from that. The expanse of the parched sands in the Sahara features a varied terrain that is both harsh and beautiful, much like the film itself.

Director: Arfaz Ayub

Cast: Asif Ali, Amala Paul, Sharaf U Dheen

Set in an imaginary world, as the director wants us to believe with its unlikely proceedings, Level Cross first establishes the limitlessness of the scarcely inhabited space as a character. It then introduces us to the everyday routine of a lonely railway gatekeeper, Reghu (Asif Ali), living in a house near the level crossing. On a fateful day, after giving the designated signal to a passing train, he finds an unknown woman lying unconscious. This sets the film in motion as the woman, revealed to be Chaithali, wakes up as Reghu begins to nurse her. He cannot hide his excitement and awkwardness at having someone to talk to after being in this barren land for such a long time.

After an interesting turn, a distraught Chaithali starts recounting how she ended up in the middle of nowhere, which involves a toxic marriage with Zincho (Sharaf U Dheen) that her parents opposed. In response, Reghu recalls his late mother’s dying wish for him to marry. Despite coming from two extremes of the social spectrum, Chaithali warms to Reghu’s seemingly kind-hearted gestures after initially being wary of him. The problem with the film’s approach here is that it struggles to convincingly portray the emotional connection that begins to develop between Reghu and Chaithali, seemingly based on their contrasting predicaments. While Amala looks the part perfectly, her exchanges, which are often old-fashioned, do not help the cause.

What ultimately makes this psychological thriller both interesting and defeating is that no one is quite what they seem. Despite the reveal about Reghu's character, which effectively piques curiosity while leading up to the intermission, the film unfortunately loses its way in its attempt to make the audience guess who is telling the truth. After a point, some of its plot twists can be seen coming from afar, barring the final reveal, especially if you are a keen follower of the genre.

While Appu Prabhakar's visuals are pitch-perfect in painting the loneliness of the terrain so exquisitely that it becomes a character in itself, as the director wanted it to be, the same cannot be said of Arfaz's writing, which oscillates between the outlandish and the mundane. To his credit, Arfaz, apart from making the film a technically sound affair, does a fine job of extracting a terrific performance from Asif Ali. As Reghu, with impressive prosthetics, the actor has fabulously managed to inhabit the impulsive rawness of an uncouth man with a dubious past.