Vilayath Buddha

Based on a novel of the same name written by GR Indugopan, who co-authored the movie’s script with Rajesh Pinnadan, Vilayath Buddha’s most significant shortcoming is that its texture and narrative style resemble a literary work far too often. Instead of adapting it for the screen by removing its inherent novel-like quality — particularly the lengthy and ornate dialogues and descriptions employed to give readers a detailed account and overview of everything — Vilayath Buddha gives off the feeling that Indugopan and Rajesh primarily tried to stay as faithful to the literary work as possible. While any writer, in such a situation, should strive to protect the soul of the work, the Prithviraj Sukumaran-starrer proves that mere attempts to translate words into images won’t help create a solid script for a solid movie.