Verdict: A thoughtful, mostly engaging time-travel drama more interested in conscience than physics, held together by Sreenath Bhasi's assured double role, though it tangles itself up in the final act.
Rating: 3/5
Writer-director: Ramees (debut) | Cast: Sreenath Bhasi, Femina George, Abhiram Radhakrishnan, Binu Pappu, Rajesh Madhavan, Stini Francis | Cinematography: Fahad Fathli | Editing: Shafique Mohamed Ali | Runtime: 132 minutes | Released: October 23, 2026, in theatres
Orijinal, which opened in theatres on October 23, is a time-travel film that knows time travel is not a new idea, and builds its whole story around that awareness. Its real subject is originality itself, and in Sreenath Bhasi it has a lead who can play both the man asking the question and the man dodging it.
The story
In 2012, Rijin Yousuf is an aspiring filmmaker whose pitches are quietly lifted from obscure foreign films, a habit he picked up as a child. One day he comes face to face with himself, twelve years older, still broke and still unknown. The older Rijin has found a way back in time, and he has a plan: since he has already seen the hits of the next decade, why not hand those stories to his younger self before anyone else makes them? It looks like the perfect crime, with no one left to accuse them of copying. Success arrives, and so does the bill. Where that leads is best discovered in the theatre.
Performances
Sreenath carries long stretches of the film opposite himself, and he makes the two Rijins feel like the same person shaped by different years. The younger one is restless and a little naive; the older one is tired, sharper and far less willing to give up what he has finally won. Their conversations, which begin as jokes about how much Kerala and its film industry change in twelve years, are the best thing in the film. Abhiram Radhakrishnan, Binu Pappu, Rajesh Madhavan and Femina George give good support, though the writing leaves most of them thinner than they deserve.
Direction and technical work
Ramees wisely skips the lab-coat jargon that weighs down many Indian science-fiction films. He sets up Rijin's world patiently before the time travel kicks in, explains just enough to keep the audience with him, and nods to genre favourites along the way, from Back to the Future to a yellow-jacket wink at Dark. Fahad Fathli's camera and Shafique Mohamed Ali's editing keep the two timelines easy to read. Some shots clearly lean on AI-generated imagery, which sits awkwardly in a film called Orijinal, and a few stretches run long.
The first meeting of the two Rijins is where Orijinal finds its tone. Instead of playing it as a sci-fi shock, Ramees lets it turn into a sparring match, with the older man mocking how naive his younger self is about the industry ahead. Sreenath plays both sides of the conversation with different rhythms, and the editing keeps the cross-cutting clean enough that you never lose track of which Rijin is speaking.
A film about films
What makes Orijinal more than a gimmick is how pointed it is about its own industry. Remakes, borrowed plots and 'inspired' scripts have long been a sore subject in Malayalam cinema, and Ramees turns that debate into the engine of his story. The older Rijin's argument, that a story nobody has written yet belongs to whoever tells it first, sounds clever until the film shows who pays for it. The title's wordplay on Rijin's name makes the same point. It is a smart frame for a debut, and it gives the time-travel plot a moral weight that most Indian films in the genre never reach.
What works
- Sreenath Bhasi's clearly separated double role
- A moral conflict about earning success versus taking it
- Humour in the two Rijins' clashes over a changing industry
What doesn't
- A third act that gets convoluted and some convenient turns
- A preachy closing stretch
- Visible AI shots and an underused supporting cast
Final word
Orijinal joins Malayalam cinema's short list of time-travel films, after Daivame Kaithozham K. Kumar Akanam, Mahaveeryar and Pendulum, and its human story proves more gripping than its gadgetry. It stumbles near the finish, but as a debut with a real idea at its centre and a strong Sreenath Bhasi at the wheel, it is worth a watch.
Also read: Friday release guide: Orijinal and Udumbanchola Vision
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Friday release guide: what to know before you book Orijinal or Udumbanchola
