A soulless drama
Set in 1957, 'Jailer' is a film treated by rote in the filmmaking process. A virtuous prison officer, played by Dhyan Sreenivasan, plunges into the task of adopting five murder convicts and tries to bring a transformation in their lives. Writer-director Sakkir Madathil gives a vague justification regarding the jailer's attempt to take up the task. The irony is that these prisoners, who have committed gruesome murders, within no time, behave as obedient people before the jailer. Considering their criminal background, the excessive servitude of the jail inmates all of a sudden is hard to digest in the proceedings.
Dhyan plays jailer Santharam, who takes up the task of reforming five convicts ignoring the warning by his superior, enacted by Manoj K Jayan. The intention of the jailer is good and he tries to induce moral values into the prisoners. But the demeanour of prisoners after reaching the jailer's farm is quite interesting due to their extreme loyalty to him. The dramatic scenes here lack intensity with the plot getting stuck at the farm house by snuffing out all hopes for improvisation. The intervention of songs absolutely pulls the plug on the progress of 'Jailer'.
Among the convicts Kammaran (Navas Vallikkunnu) appears to be a menace while Kesavan (Sreejith Ravi) becomes the servant in the house of Santharam. The prisoners conspire to run away from that house at Gandhigramam village. Pestered by his co-inmates including Sankaran (Binu Adimali) and Damu (Unni Raja), Kammaran tries to kill Santharam. Full of absurdity can be seen in the behaviour of jail inmates after they reach the house of jailer, who wants them to become good peasants by cultivating his land. The whole plot appears to be a moral story ripped off from a comic book for kids.
The lone visitor of the farm is Chembakam, played by Divya Pillai, with a typical dialogue delivery. Her attachment with the two sons of Kesavan demands the character's presence in the house. In the role of a doll seller, Divya is able to explore herself the depth and deftness of her potential in acting. However, in one scene, Chembakam utters an intriguing dialogue with a different tone. But the film never gives a justification or answer to it. Tamil actor Jayaprakash's brief appearance as merchant Velu Thampi fulfils the part of an antagonist in 'Jailer'.
Dhyan gains a lot from this movie as a grave protagonist throughout by capitalising confidently on the conflicts faced by the character. The settings and art direction are more appealing than the tale that lands on the cusp of monotony sans delay post its beginning.
With a novel theme on paper, the soul of the movie is missing in the output as it conveys only a skin-deep impact. The lead actors are lodged up in the farmhouse of the jailer most of its running time as if the plot has nowhere to go. The movie is a fine epitome of plain treatment and mere 'copy-paste' activity of the scene orders described in the screenplay.
