Gurlyndrobb
While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.
Arianna Moses
Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.
Celia
A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.
Robin Baby
After hearing of all the hype about this movie, I finally watched it with my friends and the result was pretty disappointing. There is no denying the fact that Mohanlal has done a pretty good role in this movie. It is good to see our Lalettan in a realistic role without punch dialogues and heavy action. The first half of the movie was pretty impressive. But the second half was a serious let down and the climax a disaster. Don't trust these critics who claim this to be a brilliant movie. The director attempted to make it a brilliant one but the effort didn't pay off. I couldn't find anything brilliant in this movie. In fact, I found plenty of stupid things which deteriorated the experience (like the real villain suiting up as a priest to make use of Babu Antony). The identity of the villain is predictable for those people who have seen a lot of suspense thriller English movies. And the villain overdid it in the final scenes. Overall there is nothing new in this movie other than seeing Mohanlal in a pretty good role. Might entertain hardcore Mohanlal fans.
J J
The theme of this movie, an intelligent good character and an intelligent bad character, tried and tested formula. the movie failed to impress the intelligent audience. that translated to its average performance. As a movie lover this movie reminded me, my old time favorite, Assassins, by Stallone and Antonio Banderas. Also the branding, reminded the 'Glorious' Bastards. About the casting, MohanLal secured his job as usual. rest of the characters are supporting as usual. Anoop Menon too did a good job. I think the first time I see them both together. Overall The movie has nothing new to tell. 4/10
Naveen Venu
Looking at the big picture, it's a fine movie with a surprising climax at the end. But the movie was just ordinary. B Unnikrishnan had wonderful script and just directed the movie plainly as you would direct any movie. I didn't felt that adrenaline pumping effect on me. The soundtracks was exceptionally good especially the background scores, best for malayalam movies. Kinda sounds like its Hans Zimmer. And at last the villain after being caught comes up and confess all the process.. OMG.. can't we live out of this total concept of confess.. gross!! I'm sick of it. He should have tried something else to reveal the things, not this one. There are a lot better crime thrillers from Malayalam movies. And I don't think grandmaster is one among them standing tall my ratings 6/10 for ordinary direction
Vivek Don
After the box office dud The Thriller,B Unnikrishan is back with another police story with Mohanlal,with whom he made his first super hit Madambi back in 2007.This is not a regular police story with firebrand dialogues,3-5 fights and a lukewarm climax.Its a different flick by B Unnikrishnan avoiding the regular police movie Clichés.Finally we get a neat,twisted and Simple thriller that provides some genuine thrills.The Story resembled the old Malayalam serial Black and white which was my favourite show at that time.Mohanlal plays I.G Chandrasekhar,the head of Metro crime stopper squad who lost his interest in work after his divorce.When Jereme(Riyaz khan) kidnaps 3 girls,He returns with a bang to stop injustice.Later ,Chandrasekhar receives a letter by a mysterious person stating that he wants to play a game.Hence,The movie is a battle of wits between the mysterious killer and Chandrasekhar.Helping him in this task are Kishor(Narein) and Rishi(Jagathy) and his ex-wife Deepthi(Priyamani).The killer kills his victims in the alphabetical order.Who is the Killer, what is his motive and how Chandrashekhar nabs him forms the story of Grandmaster.Mohanlal puts up an energetic performance which was missing in his last few films.He shines as Chandrashekar who is in the trail of the serial killer.His dialogue delivery and fight scenes were excellent.He doesn't have much long essay dialogues and war of words with his superiors like the regular police stories which is a disappointment for Lal fans.Its a relief for me though.His super cool performance makes the other actors just spectators and it works well for the film too.Narein was decent as the sidekick and Jagathy too did well.Priyamani had an important role as Chandrasekhar's ex-wife and did it without much flaws.Siddhique was cool in a brief role.Roma,Anoop Menon,Babu Antony,Riyaz Khan did their parts comfortably.Others were good.B Unnikrishnan hit the mark with this one.Great takings, good screenplay,crisp dialogues and good direction that makes the movie engaging till the end.The suspense was good and not predictable as the plot is twisty at times and it was completely different from what I expected.So to say,He was one step ahead of the audience's minds which was not expected,at least by me.He deserves much of the credit for this neat thriller but I felt the movie dragged in the first half.Still this one remains as one of his best works but for me Tiger is way ahead.Though it was directed by Shaji Kailas,it was written by B Unnikrishnan.The Chess playing scenes between hero and the mysterious villain which was repeated many times in the movie was interesting and caught my attention Songs were a big let down considering the music director was Deepak Dev.The first song Akale was better than the rest.BGM was good at times.The running time of the movie could have been cut short.a bit.All together,Grandmaster lies entirely on Mohanlal.Watch it for the maestro's cool performance and the movie also provides some much required thrills and suspense.The climax gets us by surprise with an unexpected villain.The movie ends up as a decent thriller.In the box office,Film will have a tough time competing with super hits like Mayamohini ,ordinary and all but I hope this one ends up as a winner.