What a year is 2019 for Malayalam cinema. So many movies that takes this industry to further heights. Helen is the recent wonder and a film Mollywood can be proud of in survival thriller genre. Helen starts as a family movie and slowly turns into a survival thriller. The movie keeps us engaged all the time. Anna Ben's electrifying performance as Helen Paul deserves a standing ovation and was simply one of the best performances of the year. She has improved much better from her previous role and debut movie in Kumbalangi Nights. She was very good in that movie too. Lal and Aju Varghese has also done an excellent job in supporting roles. Mathukuttu Xavier never compromises the quality of the movie and has done everything he could've done to make the best out of this thrilling story. Anend C Chandran's cinematography and the makeup artists also deserves applause. Overall, Helen is a movie that Mallu's can ve proud of and it is a must watch in theatre experience.

A survival drama with absolutely no exaggeration and perfectly depicted certain elements

The movie is definitely inspired by Andres Bais directed 2011 thriller La Cara Oculta or The Hidden Face.Apart from the basic premise Helen manages to hold on with superlative performances from the lead cast. The movie starts with establishing Helens character, a nursing graduate with aspirations to go abroad, earn and help her father played to perfaction by Anna Ben and Lal.Helen works part time in a restaurant and is seeing a muslim boy.unexpected turn of events brings in ruthless cop Aju Verghese into the frames, which leads to a night of desperate hunt for Helen who goes missing. Power packed performances and fuss free direction from debutant director Mathukkutty Xavier makes the movie a convincing and compelling watch

Nile biting thriller, every moments of the movie will keep audience engaging,no borong moment,feel good moments..

I'm a 70 year old white American with some but limited knowledge of India. What a tear jerker about real people. Some are humble, some are jerks. Must see. And furthermore, who new rats and ants could be supporting actors?

Helen (given name) made me tear up not because of the survival element - which is a rarity in Malayalam cinema, I should add - but because of standout performances by Lal and Anna Ben who play a father-daughter duo with so much delicacy and warmth it drives the thriller forward without being hammy. It is when Ben's character gets stuck in a cold storage unit one day that things take a turn in the plot as the director uses the event to highlight a series of issues currently plaguing the country: police apathy and their morality lens, caste discrimination, and work stress. It is rather delicious to find these topics scattered as garnishing in a film that is by and large about survival. How Ben manages to enact her challenging role is definitely an attracting element here but what I would like to move your attention to is the range of Lal and how effortlessly he plays the role of a father figure with ultimate finesse it reminded me of my own. Helen has been made well with slight issues in screenplay in the first half and a little bit of convenience storytelling but overall it comes around and will make you feel emotional towards the end. There's no way you'll feel disappointed. TN.

Actually it's not at all a thriller, but it's moves like a thriller movie.A simple movie which showed the true incident in a perfect way with simply unique. This is a new stepover for Malayalam movie. All actors and the actress who made a great work for this movie.Overall it's one of the best movie in mollywood industry.

Helen - a mixture of suspense and emotions backed up by amazing performance by Anna Ben .. Supporting cast are perfect.. Chilling experience to watch it on big screen . A film not be missed

Helen is a great example of how performances and writing go hand-in-hand, a feat Malayalam cinema has shown great consistency in, ever since its new-gen resurrection. The film goes on to prove that Anna Ben as an actor, is here to stay. That infectious grin is slowly and steadily winning the hearts of every Malayali and in Helen, it's even plugged in as a key (and extremely heartwarming) plot-point towards the end.

It's an interesting screenplay that writers Alfred Kurian Joseph, Noble Babu Thomas (who also plays the character of Azhar, Helen's boyfriend), and (director) Mathukutty Xavier come up with. For a good part, the film is a survival thriller. But before the thriller elements get going, the screenplay strikes gold in weaving up a realistic father-daughter dynamic and a rather cute girlfriend-boyfriend situation. Lal and Anna Ben are terrific, and their dialogues never come close to being melodramatic or over-the-top.

Even the scenes involving Helen and Azhar have been written compellingly. There's a good flow to the proceedings. In the hands of a less capable director, the initial police station episode (featuring Aju Varghese as a baleful cop) could have ended up hammy, but here the emotions are underplayed and all actors on screen display wonderful restraint. The film does kick into high gear once the survival thriller bit gets going and it does manage to keep you on the edge of your seat for the most part.

Many would want to question why Helen takes certain decisions slower when she's in that 'tight spot' in the second half but that's where the weight of the preceding drama comes well into play. She hasn't had a great day both at home or at work, and an emotionally weakened person, when put in an unexpected predicament, is bound to think and act slower than usual. Yet, the one attribute that stays unequivocally vivid about Helen's nature - her kindness - right from the opening scene where she adores a garbage collector's earrings to smiling at the mall's security guard every morning to trying to help a dying animal (which was the actual cause of her day at work turning messy), is integrated into the screenplay so well.

The survival bits are staged decently and Anna Ben almost makes us feel her plight with every passing second (that's a mean feat for someone who's in just her second film!). Though for me, it's the drama surrounding those characters inquiring into Helen's sudden disappearance that appealed more (in the second half). At the very end, it's easy to spot certain clichéd elements from the Vineeth Sreenivasan school of film-making but they're forgivable considering Helen, both as a character and an entire movie, is memorable overall.

Wonderful Movie..Best survival thriller in recent times😍😍😍

Helen, a different genre in Malayalam Cinema (i remember Maalootty was the first in this genre) is a well executed survivor thriller directed by Mathukkutty Xavior. Featuring Anna Ben in the lead, delivered a brilliant performance whole throughout indeed it was a wonderful performance. Mathukkutty as a director and scriptwriter along with Noble & Alfred, did all the homework for a survivor movie about a girl trapped in a freezer (from my point of view) but it had several weak links as well as some setbacks in the movie. Anend C Chandran's cinematography deserves applause. Noble, Lal, Aju Varghese, Rony David and the others performances contributed well to the movie. The major drawback of the movie i felt it was Shaan Rahman's score. He did well in the beginning and when towards the second half he lost his control and the score he made and the inclusion of Vineeth's song was inappropriate.

All in whole Helen is worth watch (but didnt felt it as a nail biting phenomenon)

A good survival thriller of mollywood and this is known as a true survival thriller.The screenplay and songs are the highlights of this movie.Must watchable film, try not to miss this one!

" Helen " Malayalam movie.

Widower father and her ambitious daughter-nurse.... their relationship, their daily interactions...all started a simple family drama... unfolding into an unexpected thriller- a survival thriller.

Anna Ben on her second outing as the movie star, has definitely outlived her 'Babymol' shades from 'Kumbalangi nights'. She handled Helen Paul, in a very matured manner. Lal, as her father, Paul supported Helen well and scored very well, in the emotional scenes.

Director with his team of script and screenplay writers, are bold enough to introduce the Mallu audience to a rare thriller. Camera work and art direction is creditable. Makeup' of the heroine during the climax scenes are excellent.

8 on 10 for this 'freezing thriller'.

Even though the story line and some of the scenes had similarly with the Hollywood movie 'Freezer', this presentation gives a distinct, different feeling.

Screenplay drags at places, still the anxious moments keep the audience on the edge of their seats..... Thrilled... Frozen thrilled... Extra frozen thrilled.

So The Basic Story Is About A Girl Who Got Stuck In Freezer I And Will She Survive In -18°c During The Period Of Overnight The Movie Is Soo Well Written I Am Truly Out Of Words The Characters Got Enough Time To Stablish Them But I Think There Is A Bit Loop In Screenplay Like If You Are Kinda Into Watching Movie You Can Guess What Gonna Be The End And How But Still Its A Delight To Watch You Will Not Feel Bored For A Single Minute The BGM Is Good I Wanna Appreciate The Lead Actress Here Who Played The Role Of Helen She Is Superb She Did Perfect Justice To The Character Tbh I Am Her Fan You Will Feel The Pain Inside You Throgh Her Acting What A Potrayal Man Now Coming Up To The Direction Of Movie Its Good And Well Executed Exept A Few Place But U Can Ignore It For Sure So Lastly I Want To Say If You Want To Watch A Good Survival Thriller What Are You Waiting For Go And Watch It

Loved this movie. All characters did extremely well. Aju Jose was a miscast. Otherwise perfect.

Helen (2019) : Brief Review -

A wanna be realistic thriller with unrealistic flaws! A thriller which lacks essential thrill but fares better on other aspects. Mathukutty Xavier's Helen can be called his attempt to try something different but did he really know it for himself? I doubt that. We'll see how without giving much spoilers. An ordinary suburban girl suddenly disappears, leaving her loved ones in a desperate search as she must face the ultimate battle - the one for her life. As shown in the film, the time was 12 am when she got locked and then without any further delays we start seeing the side-effects. This far, it seemed fair. Now, two hours have passed but we don't see any harsh changes in her. Her nose goes red and starts freezing in first half an hour but in next one hour it just doesn't change at all. She wraps her hands and legs with that sticker-tape but keeps very concerns uncovered. What? I don't how it helped. The same girl tries even harder jobs when she was supposed to lose more power as the time passes by but no physical changes happened during her struggle. Then suddenly at one moment you see her nose is gone blue (extreme freeze). I was like, it happened all of sudden? Just like that? And then you have completely irrelevant and unnecessary cliches of her father, boyfriend and police. When the thriller should have tighten its grip Xavier put a freaking boring song. LoL. That's why I want to ask him if he really knew that he was not making a mainstream thriller? Or was he making the same one by faking it as a different kind of survival thriller? Anyways, the performances and some other good scenes have saved it. I have seen Anna Ben in Kumbalangi Nights and she is a talented girl indeed, but Helen truly shows her dedication and efforts on higher level. That small speech by the watchman at the end was sweet. Overall, Helen lacks what it wants to explore and accidently gains what it didn't look for. A fair one time flick, nothing more nothing less.

RATING - 6/10*

By - #samthebestest.

Watched Helen after 20 days of its release and by then I already had been through tons of reviews about the movie and all of them were positive. Personally, such movies fail to meet my expectations and it was true over these years. But this is the first time it went wrong. Helen kept up to my expectation and sailed me through the emotions of not just Helen, but all characters in the movie. Outstanding performance from Lal sir and Anna Ben is the key. Must watch in theatres only. Awesome work from Mathukutty Xavier, Alfred Kurian and Noble Thomas in scripting the movie. Aju Varghese was remarkable with his never seen before performance. You'll leave the movie house with heartful joy.

The plot underlying Helen is fairly straightforward. However, the character development and pacing of the movie is very good. There are no over the top elements, which is very refershing. The chemistry between Lal and Anna Ben was very natural and a pleasure to watch. It was also nice to see Aju Varghese in a different get up in this movie. Overall, a good watch.

Helen' One of the best survival-thriller movie ever made in Indian cinema. According to Indian movie making standards 'Helen' tops in most of the departments!!! Amazing and realistic performance by Anna Ben, Lal, Aju Varghese and rest of the casts!!!

It's a must watch!!! Don't wait for online movie streaming sites to release it and should be watched in movie theatres!!!

This movie was different from other other mollywood movies it is a survival thriller and it succeeded to win the viewers heart this was a good movie direction was also good Anna Ben's acting was also good

A sincere performance by Anna Ben. In a mediocre survival thriller. This film has outdone all the recent releases at the box office. The credit goes to the charming Anna Ben. She carries the weakly scripted and routinely directed film on her shoulders. I recommend it to fans of Anna Ben. I do not recommend it to fans of cinema, despite the novel plot.

Mathukutty Xavier excelled in his debut film. From the trailer the plot is exposed, still the movie is a great watch. Finished the movie with tears in my eyes, so touching climax. Anna ben, Lal, Aju and everyone came to screen excelled in their roles. From the title cards to end credits, the film does justice.

Must watch for all. Dont miss. Waiting for your next Mathukutty :)

A wonderful film that shows how girl escapes from an accident happend. It also strongly holds the emotions of the relationship between a father and his daughter. Must watch