Antakshari Movie Review: Saiju Kurup's Investigative Thriller Creeps Through Patchy Subplots and Delivers Some Chilling Moments (LatestLY Exclusive)

Antakshari Movie Review: Occasionally, I miss those Malayalam cop movies of the '90s, where the protagonist blasts his corrupt seniors with punchlines to cheers-eliciting response from viewers. Mostly helped by bombastic dialogues from either Renjith or Renji Panicker. Over the years, while I realised that some of those 'mass' scenes are highly problematic - looking at you, Commissioner and The King - today's filmmakers are mostly veering from that formula, and now we have cop protagonist who are hapless victims of the very system they are in, like Nayattu last year. Director Vipin Das' second film Antakshari deals with a policeman who is caught between a rock and a hard place, the rock being a psycho killer and the hard place, the apathy of his own department. OTT Releases of the Week: Bob Odenkirk’s Better Call Saul Season 6 on Netflix, Arjun Rampal’s London Files on Voot Select, Arun Vijay’s Oh My Dog on Amazon Prime Video and More.

Das (Saiju Kurup) is the station in-charge at a village called Kedaram, that's nestled between misty rubber plantations. He is known among his peers for his obsession with playing Antakshari both at home and also while questioning his suspects. The other thing he is talked about for is his retaining only his first name and not the surname, which some of his high-caste colleagues are not a fan of.

Das' life takes a turn for worse when he buys a vintage Royal Enfield from a family. Soon after, he gets a threatening call from someone mysterious who taunts him using his own Antakshari game, and soon after even attacking his daughter. Who this man is, and why is he after Das is what the rest of the mystery is about.

Watch the Trailer:

Antakshari begins with a shocking scene that plays with a couple of mild but effective jump scares and then drops a major banger as the scene ends. You know the scene spells doom but the way it plays out is quite tense and gives us the first glimpse of how the killer works. This is followed by a flashback sequence that is both creepy and disturbing which ends with a Royal Enfield bike, and then drops in on Das' introduction years later. The transition plays tricks with your mind about whose story you have been watching, a tactic that Antakshari plays with you ahead as well in some other plotlines.

Das' obsession with Antakshari is first given a comic touch, as he interrogates the complainants and the criminals using the same technique. Give it to the director to effectively making what is a playful game into something chilling later on, when the masked killer sings out to an unsuspecting child through the woods, or that gripping sequence near the climax when Das goes out to confront the killer in the darkness around his own house.

Even darker than a killer seeking to strangulate his victims using a stethoscope is what's happening in Kedaram in both Das' department and in the lives of a few characters we meet in the village. From the high-handed attitude of certain cops to opportunistic politicians to domestic abuse to workplace abuse to child abuse, Antakshari tries to touch upon all these subjects. There are moments that felt way too disturbing, like a rape sequence, or the aftermath of a mutilation that I don't want to spill now. Bhoothakaalam Movie Review: Revathy and Shane Nigam Star in This Well-Acted ‘Horror’ Film That Frightens You With Its Realism.

At times I had this feeling that Antakshari felt like a localised version of the web-series Pataal Lok, with a beleaguered cop in the lead, a psycho killer in the mix and tackling casteism and abuse unflinchingly. However, here's also where Antakshari falters where Pataal Lok excels. With its two hour runtime, the movie doesn't get much scope to expand upon some of the subplots that it brings in. I want to believe that they are meant to be misdirects for the viewer in guessing who the killer is, but a couple of subplots do needed to have a proper conclusion.

Like the family from whom Das buys the bike from, which involves an abusive stepfather and a discussion on how once-separated women often stick to such relationships because they don't want another one to end like their first marriage. Or the one involving a mute girl Nayana (Ankita Singh) and the creepy detour (and a creepier flashback) that her story takes into. Both play into Das and the killer's story, but both felt incomplete once the movie is done. Another aspect that comes into play is the taunts on Das' socialist nature, which while a good idea, doesn't exactly come into play into actually storytelling save for a mild punchline in the end.

In an interview, the director had told that his original cut of Antakshari ran for more than three hours. I expect that version to have expanded on these subplots, but in the final cut, the movie feels half-baked with these storylines.

Still credit due where it deserves, Vipin Das does pack a punch when the movie needs to go dark and disturbing, or even when it needs to thrill. Especially when it goes into investigative mode, or the third act. Found the killer reveal to be underwhelming, though. Not want to spoil what happens, but I had this very same feeling when I watched an older investigative thriller starring Prithviraj and made by the prolific filmmaker who has backed Antakshari (there are a couple of visual callbacks aka tributes to that director's most famous work in here).

Bablu Aju's cinematography and Ankit Menon's score enhance the grim and tense nature of the proceedings.

Speaking of the performances, Saiju Kurup does well as the befuddled but diligent cop trying to piece the puzzle together. The fact that his character is devoid of superheroisms make Das so very relatable, and Kurup's understated performance makes it even better.  It is good that the makers didn't opt for a professional singer for the actor in the Antakshari scenes, which makes the sequence before the fight in the climax quite impactful.

Priyanka Nair, who plays Das' wife, is quite a wonderful actress but she doesn't get much scope here. The one scene where she is quite effective is after an attack on their daughter, her character is so traumatised that she couldn't get words out to express what happened. Sudhi Koppa is very decent as the probationary SI with a conscience. Kottayam Ramesh, who is becoming a regular face in some of Malayalam cinema's big movies, is fantastic as the scheming, loathsome policeman, who is proud of his caste identity.

PS: Should I ignore what could be a touch of self-vanity or pure coincidence or some sort of meta dig that the protagonist and the director share the same name?

Yay!

- Good and Effective in Thrill Sequences

- The First Act and Third Act

- Saiju Kurup

Nay!

- Some Subplots are Left Stranding

- Writing is Half-Baked in the Middle Portions

- Killer Reveal is Underwhelming

Final Thoughts

Antakshari is a inconsistent concoction of an investigative thriller slash dark social drama. It is chilling and disturbing and gripping when it wants to be, but the screenplay is bogged down by a couple of major subplots that showed promise but ultimately went nowhere. A huge positive is that the movie is a major improvement from the director's problematic directorial debut, Mudhugauv. Antakshari is streaming on SonyLIV.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 22, 2022 11:06 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).