Overview
- Released in late June, Balan: The Boy has been widely praised for its lead performances, especially Farzana Palathingal and child actor Adhisheshan KR, and for creating an absorbing first half built around a central mystery.
- Reviewers single out Shyju Khalid’s cinematography, Vivek Harshan’s editing and Jithu Madhavan’s screenplay as major strengths that shape the film’s mood and visual language.
- Multiple critics say the second half loses momentum by focusing more on plot mechanics than on the psychological and emotional threads that made the opening compelling.
- A revenge subplot involving a police character named Pavithran is described across reviews as underdeveloped or tonally mismatched, and critics say it weakens the film’s cohesion and the stakes of the central mystery.
- Industry voices and audiences continue to debate the film’s balance of ambition and execution, with supporters calling it a standout from Mollywood and others saying Chidambaram’s work falls short of its full promise given his earlier films.