Anand Sribala Malayalam Movie
Actor-director Vishnu Vinay wields the megaphone for the first time with an investigative tale that revolves around the mysterious death of a girl. Vishnu, who is son of director Vinayan, exudes his confidence in setting an intriguing premise right from the off in 'Anand Sreebala' while leveraging the script penned by Abhilash Pillai of 'Malikappuram' fame. Evidently, with all its obscure elements, the screenplay struggles to cross the predictable lines despite establishing a decent premise. The plot conflict is linked with the emotional attachment of a son to his dead mother and the probe into the case.
In 'Anand Sreebala', Arjun Ashokan appears as the titular character, an aspiring police officer. The actor complements well with the bizarre mental state of the emotionally-disrupted hero. With an intuitive mindset, Anand keeps on conversing with his deceased mother Sreebala, played by Sangeetha. The investigation as well as the personal dilemma of Anand progresses parallelly with the narration. But this balancing act by the director to sustain the depth of mother-son rapport is at the cost of unfastening the threads of potentially engrossing moments in the plot conflict. The findings of Anand during his investigation are the results of his interaction with his mother, who was a police head constable, in his own surrealistic realm. Apart from evoking sentiments here and there, this idea of the writer is heavily far-fetched as far as this investigative thriller is concerned.
Set in Kochi, the film follows the mysterious death of a college student, Merin Joy, played by Malavika Manoj, who was found dead in the backwaters of Kochi. Local police writes it off as a case of suicide but television reporter Sreebala, essayed by Aparna Das, digs it up after a period of time and she ropes in her friend Anand also to do an investigative programme for her TV channel. The public outcry about the case forces the police department to hand over the case for a reinvestigation to a team, headed by DySP Shankar Das (Saiju Kurup). Meanwhile, the parallel investigation by Anand with the support of his mentor Issac (Siddique) irks Shankar, who becomes egoistic towards Anand.
After a sabbatical, Sangeetha comes back to Malayalam Cinema and she impresses with her presence in a befitting role. It is pretty good to watch the different layers of the character played by Saiju Kurup, who brings in fresh energy in the proceedings. Dhyan Sreenivasan and Aju Varghese have been given cameo roles with hardly anything for them to perform significantly. Portrayal of Issac as a sincere cop, who has gone crippled while performing his duty, appears to be showcasing the virtue of police officers. But the character doesn't have the impact even as Siddique's dialogue reveals the past struggles of Issac. Besides, TV channel reporting and police department meetings add on trite sequences. The periphery of the tale has come out well compared to the fragile crime substance inside it.
Music and BGM by Ranjin Raj lend a mediocre support to the film, which has neat visuals by Vishnu Narayanan. The turnaround of events in the latter half is hardly surprising since the plot takes a predictable route with a lacklustre twist in the tale. In fact, the elements in the tale are enough to trigger an intriguing premise, but 'Anand Sreebala' flounders in tracing fresh thoughts on its way to its predictable and comfort zone.
