Balaji's Thots

After the thriller Achamundu Achamundu, director Arun Vaidyanathan switched both language and genre as he made the Malayalam political comedy Peruchazhi. Now he’s back in Tamil with another thriller. The tropes of the serial killer genre are done quite well to make the film entertaining but a few more twists would’ve made it rise about the few other serial killer thrillers we’ve had in Tamil cinema.

DSP Ranjith Kalidoss(Arjun) and his team consisting of Joseph(Prasanna) and Vandana(Varu Sarathkumar) receive a rather strange doll in the mail. They understand the seriousness when a social activist is murdered and his body is staged in a manner similar to the doll they received. The murders are suitably grisly with enough clues attached to them to keep us wondering about the meanings of the clues and the motives of the murderer. The way Ranjith decodes the clues are somewhat random(particularly the part that includes some “division”) but its fun to see how the answers help him and his team pursue the case.

Ranjith is somewhat humanized with the time he spends with his family. He has some cute scenes with his wife(Sruthi Hariharan), sighs about his daughter’s school work and bonds with his brother Sandeep(Vaibhav). Aside from humanizing him, these scenes also offer some downtime from the intensity of the main serial killer track. But after setting the family in place, its a little disappointing that they play no part in the main track. The track could’ve use some emotional heft by involving Ranjith’s family. Ranjith is also afflicted with a disease but its used in a gimmicky manner as it affects him at some key points but he is able to overcome it exactly when needed.

The serial killer genre lends itself to twists and Nibunan also stokes our curiosity by keeping the killer’s face concealed the few times that he is seen. From the point of view, the big reveal is a disappointment. Once the backstory(this has more than a passing resemblance to the Aarushi Talwar case, which was seen in Talvar) is narrated, he is identified and the film sticks to this without any further twists, red herrings or multiple suspects. The only surprise comes from the actor playing the role.