2021, Malayalam, Zee5, IMDB 8.2/10, Directed by Tharun Moorthy
An illustrative modus operandi of the cyber crime department that ingeniously encompasses a serious socio economic problem of the employable workforce. The narrative succeeds in accentuating the dejected educated youth’s mental attitude and positively parallels with their coherence in handling the ups and downs with equanimity.
The film’s backdrop is extensively based on the cyber cases of the department, the heterogeneity of case presentations and their working pattern. The film opens to a sleepless night’s events in the lives of these crime officers while nabbing a suspect. The subtle satire of the felonious officers and their illicit misuse of power during a hunt for an accused, establishes the director’s intentions on his venture.
The film’s primal knot is an inkling of two engineering graduates, on how the 2015 film Premam’s piracy leaked on the internet and establishing that the leaker wasn’t based outside the country. The ‘novice-duo’ are the first choice for a temporary opening at the Cyber Crime Department after solving the Premam leak mystery. Antony George and Vinaya Dasan, played by the fantastic Balu Varghese and Luckman Avaran keeps you engaged through the length of the film.
The gradual transformation of lives of the duo by following their hearts and the contentment that they for a fact do possess a flair for solving crimes are convincingly visualized. The measured romance and the rejection on account of the initial unemployment and later on account of the temporary job, even after Antony had extensively involved in solving his lover’s job fraud case- the sequence heightens the despair of these temporary staffs, be it in any cadre.
The multitude of cyber crime cases that the duo are faced with, entices the viewers and the solutions are both emotionally and intellectually appealing. The case where a mother is falsely framed in a porn clip that defames the family but the makers insightfully steer the screenplay with the uneducated husband who staunchly believes his wife and stands beside her, even when their own daughter disowns her mom. The sequence sure does emancipates the innumerable girl children involved in such extortion and the non melodramatic revelation of Vinaya Dasan’s sister’s story was well placed and well executed.
The noteworthy supporting casts played the Binu Pappu as Officer Joy, who identifies, believes and motivates the youngsters with his own story of appearing for the exam, to officially enter the department, is the ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ kind, for many such lost, disoriented, skillful and unemployed lots.
Another noteworthy instance is, where Jacob Mani, an Inspector played by Shine Tom Chacko, in whose murder investigation the boys stake their own lives in nabbing the criminal after a night long chase. The warmth that translates to the audience, when the inspector asks for the names of the boys, just before taking leave, is again an instance where the team recapitulates the essence of the tale.
The maker’s set ups on bringing to light the stigma of transient jobs, pays off when the youngsters have the right attitude in accepting the quantitative mismatch of the number of actively job seeking employable youths, to that of the number of actual openings in the job market.
The acceptance of reality and the endurance of the work force in constant chasing of opportunities are mightily summarized with the ‘Official Stamped Intern Certificate’ and the long shot of the duo walking the bike with the credits rolling – A metaphor to the long path that awaits the duo before any ‘permanent happening’ in their lives.