Movie Review – Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum

The gold that it chokes

What started as a typical Fahadh Faasil film with a slow start of unsuspecting characters takes a U turn as soon as Fahadh Faasil arrives on screen. It has all the elements like his other movies which starts with a story without him in the beginning, an everyday routine of them, to the point that it makes us feel we need a breather, then we yearn for his arrival so that there could would be some entertainment and finally bam he arrives. It’s one way of writing massy entertainers which is wrapped in the artsy format. Fahadh Faasil somehow gets these roles or the makers write one for him always.

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Fahadh gets a terrific intro in the bus, post which he’s caught red-handed and handed over to police station. It’s doesn’t take much time for us to develop hatred towards him. Given the way the couple complaint, it’s only easy to deduce that the incident has happened for real so it’s an open and shut case for police but they use them to fullest of advantage so that they could mint as much money as possible. What looks like a story between the couple, Sreeja (Nimisha Sajayan) and Prasad (Suraj Venjaramoodu) and the thief, Prasad (Fahadh Faasil) has police also playing a substantial part.

It’s like a game of Raja Rani, where everyone has equal importance. In fact, they have more importance. It’s typically a scene or a sequence which put in plain words show how the judges are bigger thieves than the culprit and the victim. But the way its built, it’s a careful constructed maze. There is no loud music, there isn’t any tools which manipulate us, but plain straightforward acting. As honest as the couple are, we can’t help but feel sorry for them. Seeing the confidence, we doubt ourselves whether Fahadh has really stolen the chain and the way the police perform, especially A.S.I Chandran (Alencier Ley Lopez) we feel he’s for real. In fact, the way the duo of Chandran and the other police officer (Sivadas Kannur) perform, they were equivalent to Om Puri and Naseeruddin Shah in Maqbool. Only that, here they’re not together but their act together is nothing short of spectacle.

In a movie like this, it’s really tough to hold the curiosity of audience. Editing here is lovely. The opening part where they both get married are not shown on screen but we get to know it in bits and pieces in the middle. The tension is not evident on screen but they’re not a romantic couple, the strain of what they’ve undergone in life shows on screen. That’s where both Suraj Venjaramoodu and Nimisha Sajayan are excellent. In fact, Suraj looks first choice for roles like this where he shouldn’t cry when sad. Maybe it’s becoming a template role for him but his innocence is lovely. Even though Fahadh mercilessly manipulates his, he still has an ear for him. He couldn’t leave him to walk free because he feels it would be a cheating for his wife yet he couldn’t hold on to him to bring him down because he’s not powerful enough and he has a little bit of sympathy towards him. He does both of it and struggles to survive. It’s typical of any man in a middle-class family. Every middle-class member could relate to it. On the other hand, Nimisha’s role is straight forward, she has a motherly innocent nature about her who first feels angry and then doesn’t.

This has got to be Fahadh Faasil’s best. When the film was taking a familiar twist with police trying to use wrong evidence, the way he asks Prasad to tell the truth in court and make him free was one of his masterstrokes. It looks all good till the end but there is one frame where he stares at the couple and through that one stare, his villainous nature becomes evident. That’s some lovely acting. I didn’t like the way it ended which gave a ray of hope as if all is fine. I couldn’t deduce much from the couple’s angle, who looked satisfied but may be the police had mellowed down, still he’s doing his job of not being an honest man. It’s not outrightly told that he has taken leave or retired. And Fahadh through to looks of it, feels like a man who’s searching for job. But nothing could be deduced so easily from his character. Maybe he’s looking for another robbery. But I’d like to take it in a negative angle which makes it more interesting.