Movie: Detective
Rating: 2.75/5
Banner: Vishal Film Factory
Cast: Vishal, Prasanna, Anu Emmanuel, Bhagyaraj, Vinay, Andrea Jeremiah and others
Music: Arrol Corelli
Cinematography: Karthik Venkatraman
Editing: N Arun Kumar
Producer: Vishal
Written and directed by: Mysskin
Release date: Nov 10, 2017
Vishal’s recently released “Thupparivaalan” created a lot of buzz in Tamil Nadu. Critics also wrote favourably about it. So, it created huge interest among movie lovers in Telugu states.
Vishal, who is known for his mass movies, has tried to change his image. Has he succeeded?
Story:
A school boy comes to the home-cum-office of private detective Advaith Bhushan (Vishal) asking him to find the person who killed his pet dog. He sees this as an interesting case and takes it up.
As he and his friend Mano (Prasanna) try to solve the case, they sense that this is not just about the dog, there is a conspiracy. A criminal gang is behind many murders.
The detective gets close to catching the gang, but the gang members and others get killed one by one.
How the detective finally catches the main devil (Vinay) is what the film is all about.
Artistes’ Performances:
In the role of a private detective, Vishal looks completely new. There are fights, but the action episodes are not massy. Vishal has done everything differently from acting to action stunts. He pulls off the role. Prasanna as his friend is very convincing too.
Anu Emmanuel’s character is written badly, but she has given an honest performance. Vinay as the main villain is terrific and ruthless. Andrea is suited for her role.
Technical Excellence:
The camera angles in the film are quite unusual and unique. There is a touch of the director than the cinematographer’s. Nevertheless, the cinematography is good. There are no songs in the film but the background score is noticeable.
Highlights:
Different narration
Action stunts
Second half
Drawback:
Heroine’s thread
Lack of emotional impact
Analysis:
Anyone who has seen “Sherlock Holmes” series will easily guess that Vishal’s latest “Detective” is based on that. Thankfully, the director Mysskin acknowledges as the credits roll. However, the movie is not exactly “Sherlock Holmes” series, though Vishal and Prasanna are exact copy of Holmes and Dr Watson.
The film’s story is about a gang of ruthless criminals that commit murders for money and creates an impression that the murders are natural or accidental deaths.
The gang is famous for not leaving any trace of murder –they do it with clinical precision to give an impression that the deaths are not killings. However, a small mistake in one case is spotted by the detective that sets off motion for many murders. This is the main plot.
Director Mysskin doesn’t come to the main plot immediately but reveals it in slow burning manner. In the opening scene, a death happens and suddenly he cuts the story to the introduction of detective and his eccentric behavior.
He refuses to take up cases even if someone offers Rs 50 lakhs, but agrees to find out a missing dog when a school boy offers him just Rs 800.
He also cuts to the story of how he meets a pickpocketer Mallika (Anu Emmanuel) then comes to the main thread of this gang that casually sits at dinner table while a corpse rots in their refrigerator. After this intriguing revelation, the plot thickens.
Many more killings happen, the cat and mouse game follows. The villain is ahead in the game. The tension is built in right manner but very slowly.
The director has heavily relied on different camera angles, clever deaths, action stunts. He doesn’t reveal much about the characters. The narration is slow but engaging enough.
Scenes like Andrea picking up a drink from the refrigerator in which a dead body is stored and the gang’s main guy butchering the dead body in bathroom and sipping his coffee in middle of this work are never seen in an Indian movie.
Even the action scenes are novel. A fight in Chinese restaurant (copied from a Hollywood movie) and a huge action episode in a mangrove forest make the stunts look different from regular movies.
However, despite all these positive elements and new set up, the movie doesn’t make you wonder-struck. It gives an unsatisfactory feel in the end as many sequences seem clever tricks than organic episodes.
On the other hand, the romantic (can it be called as such?) thread is awkward. The story of a pickpocketer played by Anu Emmanuel and Vishal’s is entirely unconvincing. His behavior with her is also odd. Also reports say the film is heavily inspired by international movies.
If you are game for a different kind of detective thriller, this will work for you. For others, it is just an okay watch. All in all, Vishal’s ‘Detective’ has many merits and it is a different thriller.
Bottom-line: Indian Sherlock!
