There are films that are strictly meant for short narrative, and Helen as a film, unfortunately, falls into that category. Supposedly a survival thriller, the plotline is very thin, and when such a thin plotline is stretched on to a bigger canvas, the writing gets convenient, characters get created with no motives, they are just to keep the plot alive for its running time.
There are 2 threads running in parallel post first half, one is a survival story of missing Helen, and the other is a thriller surrounding the loved ones of Helen trying to find her with the help of police officials & locals.
The survival plot works pretty well, the attempts, the struggles that Helen makes to come out of the conflict is justifiable. A nurse by profession, the compassion for a helpless rodent in that life and death situation really goes well with the character.
The problem for me with Helen lies with the thriller part, for any thriller film if the viewer is ahead of the narrative, then it brings on the irritation for the viewer waiting for the filmmaker to catch up with the audience. This is the same feeling, I was going throughout while watching this film.
Especially, the investigation was delayed indefinitely to an extent that the loved ones of the missing girl had to wait to get the location details from the cyber cell. To achieve this, we are introduced forcefully to a bad cop, just to delay arranging the details of the location, there's no further depth to this character and that's for me very convenient.
From a relativity perspective, there were many opportunities for the filmmaker to tap on the emotional aspect of the father-daughter relationship. Unfortunately, it remains at a superficial level, probably this leads again to the thin plotline the film stretches on, characters lack detailing.
Performance-wise, every other performed aptly, surprisingly I was amused by Aju Varghese's performance, though the character was flawed.
Helen, a film strictly one-time watch for the genre it deals, and for not digressing from the core conflict.
Tingnan pa 
