But whatever leads up to that point and whatever happens after that point feels either contrived for convenience or flat-out generic.
I have certain movies in mind that I was reminded of while watching Unmadham, and there are story elements that need to be discussed.
It felt more like Shahi Kabir trying to communicate his struggles as a police officer who wanted to be a filmmaker.
It’s like, out of all the possible backstories one could give to that file, Shahi Kabir chose the most unremarkable one.
Out of all the movies written by Shahi Kabir, Unmadham is definitely the least impressive.
Unmadham, the directorial debut of editor Kiran Das, has one of the most exciting interval blocks in recent times, as the sequence makes us wonder how the movie will shape up afterward. But whatever leads up to that point and whatever happens after that point feels either contrived for convenience or flat-out generic. What initially felt like an idea where a supernatural element is placed on a grounded setup ultimately ends up as a cliched revenge drama where the story goes into a predictable zone after a point.
Shelly, a police officer in Kerala Police, has this aspiration to be a scriptwriter. His attempts to get a movie made had hit roadblocks several times. The disappointment has affected him emotionally, as his fellow officers mocked him. At one point, he gets a punishment transfer to a different police station, and there every police officer had this superstitious belief that one particular file was cursed, and bad things would happen if anyone touched it. What happens when a cinephile police officer gets to know about the existence of such a file is what we see in this movie.
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Spoilers Ahead! I have certain movies in mind that I was reminded of while watching Unmadham, and there are story elements that need to be discussed. A police investigation that is triggered by supernatural elements is not something we have not seen before. In the recent past, former DGP Alexander Jacob had made some shocking claims, saying that he had summoned ghosts to prove cases. While that sounds like a stupid thing to say in real life, it is something that can trigger any writer’s mind. In fact, Shahi Kabir, the writer of this movie, at one point uses an interview snippet that talks about why Manichithrathazhu depended on Mantras and Tantras to pull off its climax, despite having Dr. Sunny. Unmadham’s problem lies in the fact that it is not imaginative in restructuring the whole case from a psychological POV. Somewhere it felt like the whole Unmadham (delusion) was making things far too easy for the hero when we were anticipating the journey to be complex.
As I said, the idea of a case file that brings bad luck to anyone who touches it and what happens to that file at the midpoint of this movie is definitely creating curiosity. Now the writing challenge for the movie is shaping the character in the beginning and adding layers to the file in focus in the later stage. The decision to make the hero an aspiring scriptwriter itself felt like a safe play for me. The personal struggles we get to see in Shelly’s life in the first half of the movie are not really adding anything significant to the movie. It felt more like Shahi Kabir trying to communicate his struggles as a police officer who wanted to be a filmmaker. When it comes to the exploration of the case, the beats are pretty familiar, and the deeper the story went towards the real villains, the more generic it became. When certain characters are revealed as the bad guys after a point, it rarely surprises you, as we have seen similar characterizations in other movies.
Reema Kagti’s Talaash is a personal favorite of mine, and somewhere the DNA of this movie and Talaash had similarities. That movie was able to use the point of view of the hero to smartly hide a key point in the story, which made the climax a real shocker. But here, the film is not really holding back anything, and whenever anything is revealed, it doesn’t come as a surprise. It’s like, out of all the possible backstories one could give to that file, Shahi Kabir chose the most unremarkable one. The movie opts for a very rustic, grounded visual language, and it is through production design elements like the tone and color of the walls of the police station that we understand the emotional state of the characters. Mujeeb Majeed’s background score is helping the movie a lot in creating that element of intrigue despite the story lacking it.
The performances in this movie from almost all the established faces are really good. Kunchako Boban is able to depict the insecurity and outbursts of his character in a believable way. The psychological condition of Shelly gives him a space to show various shades of that character. The most authentic performance, in my view, came from Lijomol Jose, who played Shelly’s wife, who is fed up with the troubles caused by her husband. Her dialogue delivery had the necessary heft. Kiran Peethambaran is there as the supportive friend of Shelly. Sabumon Abdusamad gets a character whose arc isn’t surprising. Raina Radhakrishnan and Shyna Radhakrishnan are part of the cast in significant roles with fewer dialogues.
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In its totality, Unmadham has some really good performances. The interval point of the movie is truly gripping, and technical elements like cinematography and background score have taken an effort to elevate the movie. But the fact that the writing struggles to build something fresh and unpredictable around this unique premise is undoing all these appreciable aspects of the movie. Out of all the movies written by Shahi Kabir, Unmadham is definitely the least impressive. As a viewer or reviewer, watching outright bad movies feels irritating. But watching a movie that teases you with possibilities and then ends up being forgettable is pretty disheartening.
