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Filmi Score
Very good
4 reviews · provisional
67
3 very good1 weak
What the critics say
Critics praise the well-cast, beautifully shot friendship mystery for its assured, absorbing buildup, but most agree the abrupt, unexplained ending undercuts the payoff.
Audience Score · not yet · appears once three readers have written a review
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Summary
Dear Friend (2022, Malayalam) has a Filmi Score of 67 from 4 critic reviews, is rated 10+ by Filmi (CBFC: U), and streams on Netflix in the US.
Vinod, Shyam, Arjun, Sajith and Jannath are friends residing in Bengaluru. They live, eat and party together and share a beautiful bond. At times, they pull brutal pranks on their besties like that of making one wear a funny superhero costume on their birthday night and taking him to the pub. Will these pranks become serious or will it remain laugh it out loud?
Where to watchAvailability by JustWatch · some watch links pay filmi.ai a small commission; it never changes what we show or how we score.
Vinod, Shyam, Arjun, Sajith and Jannath are friends residing in Bengaluru. They live, eat and party together and share a beautiful bond. At times, they pull brutal pranks on their besties like that of making one wear a funny superhero costume on their birthday night and taking him to the pub. Will these pranks become serious or will it remain laugh it out loud?
Where to watch
Availability by JustWatch · some watch links pay filmi.ai a small commission; it never changes what we show or how we score.
Finds the film a cosy, well-cast, well-shot mystery about friendship that comfortably pulls viewers in, with the main reservation being an… Read it there →
Praises the film's assured, evenly-paced buildup around a friend's mysterious disappearance but says the abrupt, unexplained ending undercuts the… Read it there →
Derived by Filmi
35
How this number was made. We read every review and derive a 0–100 reading from each — including where the critic printed a number, which stays first on its row, because it’s theirs. The Filmi Score is the mean of 4 readings; 2 of those rows also carry the critic’s own rating, shown beside ours. Rubric v2.1, computed 26 Oct 2026. Any critic can ask us to remove a derived reading.
PublishedStated in videoDerived by FilmiNo score
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Dear Friend: quick answers
Box office, where to watch and what critics said — from the same data as the page.
Where can I watch Dear Friend?
Dear Friend is streaming on OTT: Netflix (India, the US, the UK and Canada). Availability comes from JustWatch and is checked every Friday.
What did critics say about Dear Friend?
Dear Friend has a Filmi Score of 67 (Very good), the mean of 4 readings of critic reviews, one per review. The score is provisional until at least five reviews are read. Readings run from 35 (The Hindu) to 78 (Times of India). Every review and how it was scored is listed below.
What readers say
The Audience Score appears once three readers’ reviews have been read under the rubric — built from what people write, never from the rating numbers.
