Bougainvillea (2024)

Bougainvillea is a psychological thriller set in a secluded part of Kerala.

The movie starts off slow but well, with mystery and intrigue building up as you are introduced to Royce who is taking care of his wife Reethu, suffering from amnesia thanks to an accident.

The build up is slow as you realize there is more to the movie than just a memory loss.

Enter Fahadh Faasil as a Cop brought in to investigate the disappearance of the daughter of a bigtime politician.

And that’s precisely where the movie starts getting predictable.

In a few minutes you know who is involved, the question mostly is about the why and how.

As the movie trudges on to its finale, the why is sketchily addressed in the most interesting way and the how is meh.

Amal Neerad tries to rely on the shock value that most psycho-thrillers carry but the abstract explanations do not help in this.

The movie keeps sliding down and becomes more repulsive than scary.

The casting is just terrible.

Fahad is completely wasted. His role was as relevant as Iftekar’s roles used to be in 80s Bollywood movies.

I mean, he did a good job but they could have literally had anyone play that role because it was insignificant and did little to shape the movie.

Kunchacko Boban is pretty good in the first half, but personally I did not think he could carry the shift in the second half that well. He appeared quite out of his skin.

The only good performance to watch out for is Jyothirmayi as Reethu.

She has brilliantly depicted the memory loss, confused self and then smoothly shifted into the confident adversary towards the end.

The climax of the movie is probably the best scene where all the three women, Jyothirmayi, Veena Nandakumar and Srinda are totally in their elements. Loved watching that scene.

But having said that, overall the movie lacks the punch that is expected from a psycho-thriller.

With hardly any suspense, a pretentious mystery, wasted acting opportunities and a weak explanation Bougainvillea is nowhere are expressive as the beautiful vines that creep up the garden fencing.

The movie is not meant for a family audience due to scenes of extreme gore, violence and sexual violence.