S. R. Praveen

The need to move out of their comfort zone ceases to be a necessity for filmmakers when they find success with their favourite tropes. That has been the case with Sathyan Anthikad for over four decades. Even as the film industry changed around him in unrecognisable ways, and despite a few slumps, he continued to have some level of success with his signature style. Anthikad’s previous film, Makal (2022)— which also dealt with the tried-and-tested — had a conservative protagonist who struggled to understand the mindset of his teenage daughter. But, in Hridayapoorvam, one finds a filmmaker who has a clear intent to connect better with a younger generation, without, of course, letting go of his family audience. The casting of a few popular online content creators, an odd fit in the Anthikad world, although an industry trend, is not a coincidence. One can also notice the influence of his sons, Anoop Sathyan, the associate director, and Akhil Sathyan, who penned the story, in how he has approached the scenes.

The anticipation of violence is as mind-numbing as violence itself — the expectation that someone who has taken a hit will retaliate, with several ways to do so. In Sangarsha Ghadana - The Art of Warfare, which begins with a violent hit by one gang on another, filmmaker Krishand prolongs this anticipation to upset the audience’s expectations of what would transpire during that period. Kodamazha Suni (Sanup Padaveedan), a former gangster who has moved on and is now living a respectable life, has just lost four of his trusted lieutenants in a brutal attack by an unknown gang led by Kunjan (Vishnu Agasthya). One would expect the man to be plotting his revenge, especially when he sits with the other members of his former gang. The comical policemen tailing him also probably expected the same. But go closer, and the conversations are about a pepper drink and special masala dosa that Suni would like to have before leaving the city.

Cops without any baggage are so hard to find in movies these days that the police officer protagonist and even the entire police station in Soothravakyamstand out as different, although not exactly in a good way. Neither do they have personal troubles, nor are they challenged much by professional assignments for a good part of the movie. It leaves them enough time to run a tuition centre for school students on the top floor of the police station, with Circle Inspector Christo Xavier (Shine Tom Chacko) doubling up as a teacher. The police are so diligent in their teaching that they even go to the extent of visiting the houses of students who are absent from class. So much so that Nimisha (Vincy Aloshious), the teacher at a nearby school, feels students are losing interest in her class because of the tuition classes at the station. In Eugien Jos Chirammel’s debut directorial, this teaching activity of the police is projected as one of its novelties, but we are never told how it came about. Just like the rest of Soothravakyam, nothing is explored beyond what you see on the surface. Not even a single classroom exchange is shown to convey the equation that the officer shares with the students.

Nothing enlivens courtroom dramas than fiery arguments, which open new pathways into our understanding of a case. In Janaki V Vs State of Kerala, celebrated advocate David Abel Donovan (Suresh Gopi)‘s arguments are full of fire. Still, a significant portion of them are so irrelevant that they would fit more in a loud television debate than in a courtroom. He is the kind of person who would talk about cheese when he is supposed to argue about chalk. So, it is no wonder that he would go on a long diatribe against the State’s developmental projects when he is arguing in court in a case related to sexual assault, or that he would ask a rape victim whether she watches porn and how often. The opening credit sequences of the film hint at this behaviour with news clippings of his various press statements on a host of issues, all of which reveal a lawyer who is more active outside the court than inside. Janaki V Vs State of Kerala, which arrives in theatres with an extra ‘V’ thanks to the diktats of the censors, is caught between the need to tell a sensitive story and projecting the superhero aura of the actor playing the advocate. Debutant director Praveen Narayanan, who has also written the film, struggles on both counts.

Right from the title Dheeran (brave), which defines the protagonist, almost every other character in Devadath Shaji’s debut directorial has a defining trait. From a Hindi-obsessed welder to a local don who is more interested in his perfume business to an illicit liquor brewer who has a penchant for stirring up trouble even in the most peaceful of circumstances, it is a motley crew of oddballs. Eldhose (Rajesh Madhavan), the protagonist, gets that unlikely name which he struggles to live up to from an act of bravery in childhood, that also becomes a moment of tragedy in his life. Director Devadath Shaji, who wrote the screenplay of Bheeshmaparvam, gives a wrapping of humour to convey all that he wants to. Beneath its surface layer of easy humour, which keeps the film engaging atleast until the halfway point, Dheeran is also about the long-lasting impact of certain events in the lives of people. One particular incident leaves all those who are involved in it deeply scarred, some physical while for some others it is mental. The incident also dictates the whole village’s perception of a particular character.

As far as series openings go, Kerala Crime Files 2 takes off from quite a peculiar situation. All the police officers at a particular station have received transfer orders over suspected links with criminals and goons. A new set of police officers, clueless about the place or the criminal activity in the area, have just taken charge. Before they could ease into their new seats, they are forced to launch a search operation for one of their own. The initial piecing together of the complex character of Ambili Raju (Indrans), the missing Civil police officer who was among the transferred bunch, makes up some of the best passages in the six episode-series directed by Ahammed Khabeer, a follow up to the first web series made in Malayalam in 2023. The unassuming officer is the kind of person who is vital to any investigation team, with his wide network of acquaintances and deep knowledge of the place. He has his share of shady links, most of them cultivated for the purpose of his profession, yet he remains unsullied by it all through sheer strength of character.

One day might not be enough to get to know a person inside out, but Shahi Kabir’s Ronth almost achieves the impossible of giving us a peek into the deepest recesses of the hearts and minds of not one, but two people over the course of a single night. The writer-director pulls this off not through grand scenarios, but the crucial little details, which are sprinkled throughout the film. These are the kind of details that can be absorbed only by those who have actually lived through similar scenarios, which Kabir has, as a former police officer. Like, the scene where a senior policeman accepts a bribe to let off an inebriated priest involved in a road accident. In most films, such a scene, meant as part of character delineation without much connection to the larger narrative, would end there. Instead, here, it spills over into the next scene in the police jeep, where the policeman explains to his junior that the money is not meant for him, but to pay for the repairs of the jeep, since the reimbursements from the department take a long time to come. The scene thus gently transforms into a commentary on the system, just like the rest of the film.

The way a filmmaker conceives a single sequence can sometimes reveal the entire thought process behind the film. This is especially true of single-agenda films like Aabhyanthara Kuttavaali, the debut directorial of Sethunath Padmakumar. Sahadevan (Asif Ali), the protagonist who is facing a case under Section 498A over dowry harassment and domestic abuse, is shown returning to his wife’s family the 100 sovereigns of gold that he got as a “gift”, a modern-day euphemism for dowry. A sentimental background score accompanies this sequence which is framed fully from the man’s perspective, although he was earlier shown to have denied his wife’s demand for a part of the gold to fund her higher education. Even this demand on her part appears unjust by the way the film looks at it.