Release
date:
|
February 28, 2020
|
Director:
|
Akhil Paul, Anas
Khan
|
Cast:
Language: |
Tovino Thomas,
Mamtha Mohandas, Reba Monica John, Saiju Kurup, Renji Panicker, Prathap
Pothen, Rony David
Malayalam
|
Rithika Xavier
(Mamtha Mohandas) is heading a police team investigating a child’s murder in
Thiruvananthapuram when she realises she has a serial killer on her hands.
Samuel John Kattukkaran (Tovino Thomas), the forensic scientist assigned to
her, is a genius with a reputation for overreach. He has an old personal
connection with Rithika.
From the moment Sam
enters the picture, from the treatment and presentation of the character in his
very first minutes on screen, we know it is he who will crack the case. Scenes
are set up with the obvious intent of giving him an opportunity to prove his
smartness. At first he patronises his junior colleague and throughout outshines
the senior to whom he reports – both of them women, marking the token female
presence so common in Malayalam cop sagas while men go about actually solving
the crime/s at hand.
Perhaps the
only thing left was for Sam to wear a headband saying: “designated hero of the
film.” Subtlety, you see, is not the forte of this crime thriller directed
by Akhil Paul and Anas Khan. If you are willing to forgive Forensic its many venial sins on this
front – since they are silly but never offensive in the way a certain kind of loud, misogynistic, male-star-driven Mollywood cinema is – you might enjoy this
harmless crime drama up to a point, as I did.
Until the last
half hour or so when the killer is unveiled and motivations revealed, Forensic’s deductions are impressive
enough and related in an easy enough fashion to make the film an entertaining
ride. Sure, the background score should have been played down. Sure,
several scenes are awkwardly constructed to pointlessly over-emphasise a point,
but well, no one is saying Forensic
is high art. Sure,
an arrest made by Rithika in an old case recounted in the present was
senseless, but that can be put down to standard police inefficiency, even if it
seems inconsistent with the portrayal of Rithika. Sure, little thought has gone
into two scenes of arrests when the police bring their suspects out in
public with faces uncovered knowing that crowds are present outside. Sure,
it is hard to believe that so many little girls were lured away by a charmless
criminal. Sure all the above are true, but until that last half hour, Sam’s
work sustains the film.
I am not certain
any Indian state police department has the facilities that Sam and his
associate Shikha (Reba Monica John) have at their disposal – maybe they do,
maybe they don’t, I am just wondering based on news reports and conversations
with actual personnel that reveal how cripplingly ill-equipped police forces
are in India. However, drawing on those very discussions, it does seem possible
that a single Indian investigator might indeed have to be a Jack of all
specialities within forensics, as Sam is shown to be in this film, due to a
lack of available trained humanpower (far removed from the
ultra-super-superspecialties I have been discovering through the addictive
American real-life-crime series Forensic
Files I have lately been binge-watching on Netflix). Either way, Sam is
smart enough and his logic roughly convincing enough to a layperson for his
investigation process to be engaging.
Then the
perpetrator is revealed, the identity is indeed unexpected, but Forensic sinks itself in the person’s
convoluted, complicated, uninspiring back story. What made the recent
release Anjaam Pathiraa so
unforgettable was the heartbreaking crime that motivated its serial killer’s
spree, the plausibility of the murder plan, the performances of the charismatic
actors in that tragic back story and those bringing it to its present-day
conclusion, plus the film’s insight into Kerala politics and society. In
contrast, the reasons for the commission of the horrible crimes in Forensic are drowning in contrivances.
Layer upon layer seems to have been added with the sole purpose of throwing in
more surprises, except that they are not particularly meaningful or
interesting. And since the audience has not been given an opportunity to be
emotionally invested in the killer – either to be sympathetic or repulsed – it all
adds up to a damp squib.
The finale of this
film is suicidal, trying too hard to be clever and ending up being too clever
by half.
This was really
unnecessary, because Forensic is
passable entertainment till then and some of the earlier unfolding twists are
not half bad. It also has Thomas and Mohandas’ likeable personalities going for
it and the actors’ comfort with their characters’ professions, Renji Panicker
in a nice turn as a retired police official, an occasional sense of humour in
the screenplay, the fact that it does not take the male protagonist down a
conventional path of romance in the way most commercial Malayalam films do, and
the other fact that he is not obnoxiously macho as so many leading men are in
formulaic Mollywood police sagas.
But what is a crime
thriller if its central criminal is dull? The answer to that question is a
summation of what Forensic has to
offer.
Rating (out
of 5 stars): 2.25
CBFC Rating (India):
|
UA
|
Running time:
|
134 minutes
|
This review has also been published on Firstpost:
Posters courtesy: IMDB
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