Nellikkampoyil Night Riders Movie Review: A panic tale without a pulse

There is a version of Nellikkampoyil Night Riders that could have been genuinely tense, funny and affecting. Noufal Abdullah, a seasoned editor, in his directorial debut, keeps the film consistently watchable across its two-hour runtime. The craft is never in doubt. The problem lies almost entirely in the writing. Sunu AV and Jyothish M, the duo who previously penned Pranaya Vilasam, have imagined a story that has a skeleton but very little flesh. The result is a film that appears polished on the outside and hollow at its centre.

Director: Noufal Abdullah

Cast: Mathew Thomas, Sarath Sabha, Roshan Shanavas, Merin Philip, Vishnu Agasthya, Abu Salim, Rony David Raj

The story opens in a village at the edge of a forest near Tamil Nadu, presumably in the late nineties or early 2000s, in the middle of a local panic tale triggered by sightings of a half-man half-horse figure. Setting it in a pre-mobile era keeps the plot protected from modern logic. Without CCTV or rapid communication the story is free to play out in the dark. Abhilash Shankar films the night with quiet precision. Yakzan Gary Pereira and Neha S Nair deliver a score that blends classical and modern elements without ever turning loud or intrusive.

We enter this world through Shyam, a college student on holiday, his two friends Rajesh and Kannan, and Shyam's girlfriend Dhanya. The trio of friends first dismiss the rumour as a joke and later get pulled into an effort to trap the threat. The screenplay nests a personal fear inside a collective one. Shyam is secretly terrified of the dark because of an incident from childhood involving a relative named Chothi. This could have been the film’s most fertile idea, since his arc is tied to the village's panic that takes place almost entirely after sundown. The setup recalls something like Detective Ujjwalan, where a community circles around a danger. That resemblance also exposes the same flaw as in the Dhyan Sreenivasan-starrer. The antagonist in Nellikkampoyil Night Riders is barely conceived. There is no psychological weight to the actions. For a film built on fear the source of fear has no spine.

As Shyam, Mathew Thomas is serviceable. He handles fright convincingly but falters when he has to fake bravado. Sarath Sabha as Rajesh and Roshan Shanavas as Kannan are the ones who bring the film to life. Their comic timing rescues several stretches. An exceptional performer like Vishnu Agasthya enters late and is not used enough, although he makes the best of what little he is given.

Dhanya, played by Meenakshi Unnikrishnan, is written without any life. She exists mainly to move the hero from one emotional position to another. A major incident involving her is later used as the turning point in his journey. The film treats this moment as a plot requirement rather than an experience with emotional or moral weight, and once it has served its purpose, the script insensitively moves on without spending much-deserved time with her. The strand that does leave a mark is Chothi’s, played with an eerie stillness by Merin Philip. Her scenes carry a chill that the rest of the film never recaptures.

On paper the plan is clear. Build the story around a fear that belongs predominantly to the protagonist and let the village crisis force him to face it so both threads close together. Unfortunately the writing takes the easiest road. The romance that is meant to push Shyam into the dark is made up of familiar beats. The script then tries to deepen the friendship between Shyam, Rajesh and Kannan without any groundwork and too late. The shadowy figure they chase also remains abstract and never grows beyond a handful of reported traits.

There are occasional jokes that land and a few physical gags that work. At one point the plotting even resembles a Scooby Doo-style trap, only without any genuine wit. The film concludes on a personal note and leaves the broader questions untouched. Taken as a whole, Nellikkampoyil Night Riders is tidy and intermittently lively, yet it stays predictable. The craft keeps it afloat but the writing never gives it a reason to linger. With a stronger antagonist and a bolder approach to its own ideas it might have risen above the basics. As it stands, it plays like a routine rural mystery that fades from memory soon after.