How much do we know of each other? How much do we know about our near and dear ones? Do we really understand people who we claim are close to us ? Do we know what is going on inside their heads? Do we know what they are planning and plotting? More often than not we could be way off the mark. Another breakthrough idea, a perspective on characters and relationships and a sobering take on mental health - #Thankam on #AmazonPrime makes for an interesting watch.
At a fundamental film level, #Thankam is an interesting murder mystery that unravels ever so slowly and almost tantalizingly persuades you to be part of the investigation. You catch yourself imperceptibly nodding at each step and reaffirming the action being taken. After a long while, I was delighted to sit through a police procedural that had me engaged all through. #SyamPushkaran, who is turning out to be a phenomenal script writer has built the plot of #Thankam at two levels - first there is an ‘incident’ that serves to eke out the nuances of each character and then the main story that catches the viewer by surprise. The incident is set up also because each character walks into the narrative with absolutely zero introduction and without any preamble; so much so that one of the characters Bijoy (#VineetThattilDavid) walks into the story literally without his underwear!
The premise is quite simple but the plot is absolutely unique. Two friends , Kannan (#VineethSreenivasan) and Mathew “Muthu” (#BijuMenon) are involved in the questionable business of gold smuggling but have hearts of gold. In the “incident”, they get picked up by the police while on a journey from Thrissur, the gold capital of Kerala to Coimbatore. They end up bribing a police officer and after some strenuous investigation, they are let off. #Kannaan then sets off for Mumbai as part of his work and the complex universe explodes to life when he is found dead in a seedy lodge.
I found some very interesting nuances in the script, characterisation and direction extremely interesting. #VineethSrinivasan is exemplary as the soft-spoken but very assertive Kannan. When required, he can turn aggressive but can also calm down in seconds. When he leaves Muthu and Bijoy back at a lodge and drives off to realize that the car keys are still with Muthu, we see him tearing into Muthu but calms down quickly and asks him if he is enjoying himself. Kannan is depicted as pious, soft-spoken and clearly confident. The images of him applying the scared ash on his forehead stick in your head. In what is a political statement, he is shown enjoying beef at Muthu’s house. I only wish we had some more material on Kannan to play with.Perhaps even a few flashback shots to make sense of this intriguing character.
Similarly, Muthu is the senior of the three friends, but people call him by name ; #BijuMenon plays a very restrained character who balances the police investigation, the emotions of Kannan’s family as well as his conviction in the motives of his dear friend. That scene where he and Kannan’s wife (#AparnaBalamurali in an effortless role) get to know about Kannan’s demise is pure gold…. Shock, disbelief, concern and restraint all rolled into one!
The man who runs away with the medals though is that Marathi cop with the persistent scowl that turns into a scornful smile , #GirishKulkarni. He plays the cop Vijay Sakhalkar.Directors #SaheedArafath and #PrakashPrabhakaran are brilliant in how they manage a multilingual investigation remain in the original language. I must say, that Malayalam cinema is now showing tremendous maturity in acknowledging the multiplicity of languages and not attempting to make a caricature of certain language speakers or dialects! The Marathi policemen are very believable as they bumble their way around in the heart of Tamil Nadu. As their senior cop says at one time “We are Maharashtra police investigating a Mallu case in Tamil Nadu - it’s going to be tough”. At another juncture when Sakhalkar wants to investigate a Tamil woman, she says she can speak Hindi. And on a different occasion, the cop accepting a bribe hands back a pendant after paying obeisance to it even as he has no qualms in pocketing the chain as a bribe! I think these neat detailing makes the film so much more believable!
#Tahnkam is produced by Bhavana Studios ( #FahadhFaasil, #DileeshPothan and #SyamPushkaran). I am finding it difficult to box the film into a specific genre; it has elements of many categories and is yet a breakthrough genre-breaking project. #Thankam is multifaceted - it is a crime drama, a friendship tale, a police investigation study and a deep-dive into human nature - and told in five languages - Malayalam, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil and English!
The film has its misses. I think the character of Kannan could have been detailed a little more to help us understand what was going on inside his head. The Thrissur gold trade and the concept of the gold rider and the mental turmoil they undergo is left unsaid. I was left with the thought that the brilliance of the character detailing and the police investigation took away from more deliberation on what is undoubtedly a breakthrough idea!
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