‘The Smile Man’ movie review: This ruthless, pretentious psycho-thriller has a lot of problems

A scene from ‘The Smile Man’ Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

in three-quarters The Smile ManOne character wonders whether the efforts to capture the psychopath at the film’s center deserve as much attention as The Zodiac Killer, and this self-aware attempt at humor makes you laugh for all the wrong reasons. Adding to the long list of genre films in Tamil that end up as mere imitations of popular titles, this tough psycho-thriller vomits in places where you wonder if a parody could have entertained better. .

Even the police hero at the center is an archetype diluted in its lowest denominator. As is always the case in such films, he is a male policeman who has retired from action; Making him alone helps lead to the flashbacks, in addition to saving you time from drama families. Surely he needs to come back to the case willingly and what could drive an honest man to commit a crime more than guilt or remorse? What if that guilt stems from a personal loss linking him to the case (cinema bureaucracy rarely cares about conflicts of interest)? And of course, to make it a ticking game, and to justify any chink in his armour, intellectual or physical, he must be suffering from some disease.

in their 150^th By walking out, Sarathkumar has been deprived of one such icon, Chidambaram Nedumaran, who could put other iconoclasts in his category to shame. This is a cop who can’t catch the killer, even if the killer willingly goes to his lair! Every time he takes a time-sensitive step, he becomes dizzy and disillusioned with Alzheimer’s, a side effect of a fatal accident that brings him into contact with a man named Smile Man (a psychopath who flashes smiles on his victims). Had to endure while chasing a dangerous serial killer. , The thought that his memories will soon fade prompts Chidambaram to pursue the killer who escaped from his clutches five years ago. You are a little surprised when pedophile Chidambaram’s friend becomes the killer’s first victim in five years. In a different movie, you might have reevaluated Chidambaram as a murderer and wondered if it was all a fabrication of his fractured mind, but The Smile Man There is no indication of such depth.

Chidambaram’s forecasting is used to such an extent that apparently this is why this guy would not note the registration of a suspicious vehicle inches away from him, or see a picture on the wall opposite when he second guesses. Will determine whether he has entered the right house or not. Or, when his car door gets jammed next to a truck, he’d rather leave the killer open than break the windshield… or simply open the door on the other side.

After starring in a brilliantly executed psycho-thrillerPor ThozilIt’s disappointing to see Sarath playing the role of Deuce in a useless film that irritates you as much as when you see horror movie heroes getting divided in the jungle for no reason. Although he knows how bad his situation could be, Chidambaram repeatedly risks his best shot at the killer when he could have taken the help of his team, including the policeman leading the investigation, Aravind (Sreekumar, a – Focus on perfect expression), and kirtan (sija roz). Saying that he has deep secrets does not justify such actions because he could have used Arvind without even revealing anything.

Sarathkumar and Sija Rose in a scene from ‘The Smile Man’ Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

More often than not, you feel as if the narrative was constructed with convenience in mind rather than the need to be believable, and the countless glaring flaws don’t inspire you to invest. In this investigation, city-wide alerts and multiple bodies do not prompt the police to examine the CCTV footage to trace the movements of the suspect’s vehicle, a white tempo van. The coolness of an overhead shot of an open-top van carrying a bound man on a cold winter’s night takes priority over explaining how it escaped all surveillance and witnesses.

We are told that the world believes the assassin was shot by an officer named Venkatesh (the opening scene previously revealed that Venkatesh was killed in another shootout that ended with Chidambaram’s accident) It happened and the killer escaped from their clutches). Throughout the investigation, the police wonder if the new killer is a copycat of the ‘real Smile Man’ who was allegedly killed. Now remember, there is an identity, a face, and even a family for that man who died five years ago. When a series of murders occur, the media and police attach a nickname: the Rostov Ripper, the Milwaukee Cannibal, the Delhi Butcher, or, here, the ‘Smile Man.’ When these murderers are captured or executed, they are revealed to be Andrei Chikatilo, Jeffrey Dahmer, or Chandrakant Jha, and are reported with both their original name and a given adjective. Here, the Smile Man who was killed remains the Smile Man and is reported as only that without a name or photo, even when we get to see who this man was and how he died . Even his partner is called the Smile Man’s wife!

Like a long newsreel repeating everything that’s been set up straight away, there are several signs of less-than-confident writing and execution. The most annoying feature is how the unsettling score undercuts even the most mundane moments. The background music and sound effects snatch away any room for subtlety, and even Chidambaram looking over his shoulder comes with heavily foreboding music. Perhaps it is because of this lack of confidence that directors see no harm in repeating the scenes of this K-town clown’s smiling victims. How do you make this psychopath look more dangerous on the Indian screen? The information that a child was one of the victims, or how she died, and the candid shots of her corpse when she was found are not enough to make us feel for her. So you show repeated shots of exposed skin on her face that looks like a smile.

From the investigation that leads to the killer or the flashbacks to Chidambaram, whom the film so preciously avoids, nothing sticks. At a crucial moment, when you see Chidambaram smiling, you feel bad for the actor behind him. With grown-out hair and a bearded look like an aged Billy Butcher, Sarathkumar looks smarter and fitter than any 70-year-old actor. Unfortunately, his much-awaited 150^th Traveling outside may make him no longer a smiling man.

The Smile Man is currently playing in theaters