Suresh Gopi Gives Me An Answer: My friends always ask me "why dont you watch movies"? Though I used to reply "I will watch movies if they are closer to reality" - that answer was without conviction. Because I used to watch malayalam comedies, which were often not closer to reality, at least in dialogues. The dialogues that wud make lol in movie, if used in real life wud fetch slaps!! ;-) So I was still asking "main eisa kyun hoon" regarding my dislike for most movies. Thats when I watched an interview of malayalam actor Suresh Gopi, where he explained how the "mind of an aam aadmi" works while watching a movie. That was revelation to me & gave many answers to my question of "main eisa kyun hoon - disliking movies" ? ;-)
He Explains: "An aam movie goer considers himself very intelligent. So as he is watching a scene/listening to a dilog he alredy thinks about what is going to happen next. If his guess is correct, though he feels proud momentarily, he is not happy as he tends to think, the movie will proceed as he forecasts- of course with minor twists etc. On the contrary if his guess went wrong he feels fooled, but will look forward to next occasion to guess. So the trick of making a good movie, especially a thriller is to keep fooling the viewer again & again. The moment you let him to be able to guess wat going to happen next, he no longer needs your story, as he alredy knows it. thats when the movie flops" ... this was eureka to me.
Realization ( with due respect to Monoo) : Thats when I realised that I was intelligent everytime I watched a richboy-poorgirl meeting - bcos I cud easily forecast love happening, they singing-dancing in swiss alps-a triangular love- one dies, all is well that ends well. or I cud easily guess rajnikant is gonna beat 12 guys or he is gonna arrive just before rape happens etc.
Why I watched this movie: It was a holiday & I was home. The movie was being aired on TV & from the name it was obvious it was a thriller. So I wanted to put Suresh Gopi’s theory to test, so decided to watch it non-stop - except for the commerical breaks, when I switched to a sports channel ( didnt want to switch to news channels as they only flash statements by advani, modi, soniya, priyanka etc these days - when will news channels realise there is no need to broadcast all statements!! ) ;-)
Cast
Shyama Prasad - Suresh Gopi (police detective)
Mohan Kumar – Suresh Gopi ( young honest politician)
Reshmi Mohan – Sindhu Mohan (mohans wife, who dies in the start)
Rest of the cast-
Jagathy - a comic police officer
Cochin Haneefa - opposition leader
Sai Kumar - local police officer who does the first investigation
Devan - police chief
Augustin, Milkman, paper boy - first ppl to see the crime scene
Prem Prakash - CM
Madupal - close aide of mohan kumar
Babu - an opponent of mohan within the same party.
Plot: The movie begins with death of Mohan’s young, beautiful wife. The body is found by neighbour, milkman, maid, paperboy after they break open the door. soon police arrive & find out a sooside note, a bottle of poison from the crime scene. Husband is arrested for abetting sooside & the note indicts him. This comes as a shock to everyone as mohan is an honest politician ( isnt that an oxymorn? :P ) & was the ruling party’s candidate for by-election.
The media attention & unanswered questions in the case calls for an investigation by an higher authority & then enters shyam the detective. I dont know why, but the story adds an unnecessary angle here. Mohan is step brother of shyam & not in touch, as Mohan grew up in an orphanage. But soon we are asuured that shyam wont be prejudiced against Mohan & will only go after the truth.
I am fooled : I was convinced with evidences given by the witnesses, dead girls parents & others and thought it was a sooside. But the director made me suspect mohan for murder. But Once shyam entered the scene, I also invoved myself in the investigation & went on suspecting almost everyone listed above. I ascribed motives for each of them to kill the lady, but shyam went on making a fool of me. So I felt a fevicol ki jodh with the TV - yes I was glued to the movie.
Also the movie kept me glued because there was no other distraction from the story in the form of heroines, item songs, song dances etc. I didnt even notice any music or background score. I was glad the heroine died in the first scene itself, else surely she wud have danced :P . Finally shyam cracks the case but we are not told yet, who is the killer. so we have to wait till the climax, which I felt was comic, in terms of the reason for killing.
Climax: Shyam is done with all investigations & calls a conference of press, CM, all witnesses to do a live powerpoint presentation to unveil the killer. with some drama & last moment twist & turns ( I got fooled there again!! ) he presents the killer. After intiial denial & some more nail biting drama, the killer is revealed - but wat was not convincing was the motive for killing !!
Cast Performance: Suresh Gopi solely carried the film - all others did good justice to the roles.
Crew:
Story, Screenplay, Dialogue, Direction - Jithu Joseph ( debut director - not bad for a first movie)
Producer - Mahi
Banner - Superstar Films
Distributor - Super Release
Camera - Aanand Kuttan
Editor- P.C Mohan
Art – Giresh Menon
Music - S.P Venkatesh
My Verdict : I was fooled, so I recommend it. Except for the the not-so-convincing motive for killing the rest all was intresting. while watching I tried my level best to explain how the killer could kill & leave the room, still leaving the room bolted from inside. But when shyam unravels how this was done, I too was left in awe wondering at the detailed plan (over 2yrs planning) the killer did to commit this almost perfect murder !! ;-)