Aasha Review: Urvashi Shines in a Thriller That Fizzles
Urvashi is praised in Aasha, now on ZEE5, but critics say the Malayalam thriller fizzles in its second half. What The Hindu and others wrote.
Aasha, a Malayalam thriller directed by Safar Sanal, began streaming on ZEE5 on Oct. 16 with dubs in Telugu, Tamil, Hindi and Kannada. It first reached theatres in September, and critics who saw it then were close to unanimous: Urvashi is superb, and the film around her does not match her.
The film
The Hindu's S. R. Praveen lists Urvashi, Joju George, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Vijayaraghavan and Ajayan Adat in the cast and gives a runtime of 127 minutes. Urvashi plays Aasha, a woman in a frayed mental state who has a run-in with a volatile man, Jeemon, played by Joju George, after a road accident. The screenplay was co-written by Joju George, Ramesh Girija and Safar Sanal.
What critics said about Urvashi
The Hindu's review opens with a single scene in which Aasha speaks to a doctor after realising something dreadful may have happened to her daughter. Praveen writes that Urvashi lends the scene an uncommon depth, with stuttered words, a shifting voice and a pen she cannot hold steady. He compares her to a cricketer playing a lone stellar innings in a losing cause.
Other outlets we found agree on the performance. Koimoi's headline says her outstanding act elevates a gripping revenge thriller despite a flawed climax. NowRunning's headline says the versatile actor steals the show. A summary of the reviews we found describes Joju George as strong, moving from menace to helplessness.
What critics said about the film
The Hindu says the film teases a battle of egos in the manner of Ayyappanum Koshiyum (2020) and then takes a darker turn halfway. It says that is where the screenplay fizzles, and that the writers seem unsure how to untangle the situation they have created. It calls the primary conflict weak, the later sequences contrived and the ending abrupt and unsatisfactory. The sound design by Ajayan Adat and the other technical departments are credited with strengthening the dark mood, but the review says they cannot compensate for the writing.
The review also makes a point about Urvashi's career, saying the film is a reminder of how underused she has been recently in Malayalam cinema. That is the critic's observation, and we have not tested it against her filmography.
Where to watch
ZEE5 lists the film from Oct. 16, and Dishalu's release guide and the Economic Times' weekend list both name it among the week's regional picks, describing it as a courtroom thriller or a psychological thriller. The descriptions differ, and The Hindu's review does not call it a courtroom film. We have followed The Hindu on the plot.
Why it matters
Urvashi has won the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress twice, according to her Wikipedia entry, for Achuvinte Amma and for Ullozhukku. A streaming release of a film built around her gives a wider audience a chance to see her lead a thriller, and the reviews suggest that is the reason to watch.
What we could not confirm
We could not verify the date of the theatrical release beyond The Hindu's review, which is dated Sept. 11, 2026, and says the film is running in theatres. We have not seen the film. We read The Hindu in full and the other reviews through headlines and summaries, so we do not quote their ratings. The OTT description varies between outlets.
Sources
*Cover photo: Asianet, Wikimedia Commons, *[*https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Urvashi_%282022%29_01.jpg*](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Urvashi_%282022%29_01.jpg)* (CC BY 3.0).*