‘Thalavan’ movie review: Biju Menon, Asif Ali’s thriller has an intriguing plot but its potential is wasted

A scene from ‘Thalavan’

In the current social media environment, people easily become brands, making it often difficult to break out of the image that has been imposed on them. Filmmaker Jis Joy, whose many feel-good films have often made him the subject of memes, has been making a serious attempt to break that image for the past few years. Innale Ware, His first attempt at making a dark thriller failed. In his latest project ThalavanIt appears Joey has learned some lessons from that misstep, yet he still has a long way to go.

Thalavan The story begins with an ego clash between two police officers, Jaishankar (Biju Menon) and Karthik (Asif Ali), before it slowly moves into the world of an investigative thriller. While senior officer Jaishankar does not tolerate any kind of disobedience, Karthik has a history of speaking his mind and getting transferred repeatedly. There are many police officers around them who have their own personal agendas and animosities, which lead them to create even more differences between the two. When a body is found under mysterious circumstances, all these past events and inter-departmental dynamics come to the fore.

Screenwriters Anand Thevarkat and Sarath Perumbavoor have managed to keep us guessing about the killer’s identity and motive till the very end. But, this is partly achieved by constantly introducing characters and situations to mislead us. Amidst all this confusion, a past event that has a connection to the murders is also included, but it is easy to overlook it in an already crowded field.

Despite having a fairly interesting plot, Thalavan With all these situations and characters, this film is designed to keep us distracted. The needle of suspicion keeps shifting from people both inside and outside the police force. A good portion of it is presented in a fairly dull manner, almost as if they were waiting for the right time to push the revelations towards the end of the film. The mystery, when revealed, makes this wait somewhat worthwhile with its simplicity.

Yet, at the same time, one can’t help but wonder what could have been gained from this material had all the nonsense been removed and it been edited in a less jarring manner. The revelations that unfolded at the end deserved to be far more interesting than they are. The idea of ​​calling in another police officer to narrate the entire case to an online channel seems a bit redundant in the end.

Both Biju Menon and Asif Ali have got roles with some scope for acting, while Kottayam Nazir makes a mark in the few scenes he gets. Miya George and Anusree’s roles are merely functional.

Given the plausibility of this plot, Thalavan The film falls a little short of the mark; nevertheless, Jesus Joy has proven to an extent that he is comfortable outside the feel-good space.

Thalavan is currently running in cinemas