Aadhi is everything that a perfect launchpad should be and some more... Directed by the Dhrishyam man, Jeethu Joseph himself, Aadhi is the much awaited debut for Pranav Mohanlal as a lead actor and boy, does he impress.. Malayalam cinema has not had too many well-made thrillers in this genre and that is where Jeethu Joseph scores yet again. Aadhi is the tale of a young aspiring musician who gets unwittingly tangled in a murder by being at the wrong place at the wrong time. It's a classic cat-and-mouse chase that ensues with plenty of action, sentiments and some brilliant music. Well, everything except romance!! which is conspicuously absent altogether.

Aadhi is the quintessential nice-guy-next-door, single child to doting parents, shy towards female attention, passionate about his music and his parkour, vulnerable, sensitive, protective - basically a lot of textbook goodness rolled into a guy. The first half ambles along establishing all this, until tragedy strikes and from thereon, it is a thrill-a-minute chase-athon. Pranav's parkour skills get a lot of prominence and he proves beyond doubt that there is nobody in Mollywood who can execute action sequences with such finesse and style as this young man. This thriller doesn't require him to show his acting chops as such, but like his illustrious father, Pranav has amazing screen presence and he can only get better!

Aadhi is also about an ensemble set of well-fleshed out characters played by some wonderful actors. Siddique and Lena are perfect as the doting parents. Sharafuddin has a short but a knockout role sans his regular tomfoolery. Anushree is always amazing! Siju Wilson and Tony Luke were good. But for me, the best of the lot was veteran Meghanadan who plays the affable truck driver Mani anna. What a kickass act by the man who is hardly seen on screen these days. The baddie played by Telugu actor Jagapathy Babu was the only one who stuck out like a sore thumb with his hamming and bad dubbing.

The screenplay has the Jeethu Joseph stamp all over it, with a languid start and then gathering pace and building it up to a terrific action-packed climax. The suspense element is a tad lame and cinematic liberties are aplenty, but who cares when the film as such hooks your eyeballs from the first scene till the last one. The background score is spot-on and the music starting off with an unplugged version of Mizhiyoram from Mohanlal's debut flick (what else after all!) is melodious and enjoyable. But beyond all this, it is the mind-blowing action that takes center stage with great choreography and not much reliance on VFX. Even the gravity-defying stunts are shot with a lot finesse and a realistic touch.

Aadhi is a very enjoyable action thriller that takes a bit of time to bring you to the edge of the seat but then keeps you there till the end credits roll! Do give it a shot folks!