IG Malayalam Movie
B. Unnikrishnan's Suresh Gopi-starrer 'IG' is exactly what you'd expect it to be and nothing more. You've seen it over and over again in several Suresh Gopi-starrers. Most of the other faces that you usually see in such films are also there. That puts you in a kind of dilemma. How do you go about reviewing a film like this? There's no denying the fact that IG is a rather well-made film (now that's not the same as saying it couldn't have been made better). At the same time there's no denying the fact that there isn't anything new in the film either. It's the same old stuff from frame 1, and it doesn't excite you one bit.
Durgaprasad IPS is your typical firebrand cop who has been sidelined (yawn) and put in charge of the traffic department, for his refusal to kowtow before the powers that be. As luck would have it, Durgaprasad happens to intercept people who are bringing in cash the hawala way to fund terrorist activities. The matter is brought to the attention of his superiors, and through them to the State Chief Minister. An Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) is formed and Durgaprasad is asked to lead it.
What next? Obviously Durgaprasad chooses his aides, guys who, like him, have been sidelined and harrased by superiors. And then starts the hunt for the culprits behind a blast in the busy Chala market and also the killing of the State Home Secretary, Paul Joseph. The master brain behind it all is Skaria Zachairah, for whom terrorism is a business. He is assisted by men like ex-minister and prominent politician Beeran Kutty Sahib and his men, and also by men in khaki, like the City Police Commissioner Vijay Bhaskar. And there is someone nicknamed Eagle, who remains a mystery and who passes on information about the moves of the ATS.
Suresh Gopi, Malayalam Cinema's super-cop while repeating himself for the umpteenth time, does full justice to the role of Durgaprasad IPS. The actor has grown a little plump for the role though. He'd better watch his weight. All the others in the cast, like Asheesh Vidyarthi (as Skaria Zachariah), Saikumar (Beeran Kutty Sahib), Subair (as Vijay Bhaskar), Devan (as the DGP), Rajan P. Dev (as the Chief Minister) etc have done pretty well. Vijayaraghavan is just about OK as Vakkachan, one of Durgaprasad's assistants. The problem is not with his performance, but with his character, since he doesn't have much to do.
The fate of Jagathy Sreekumar is worse. As Damodaran Pillai, who is another of Durgaprasad's aides, he has absolutely nothing at all to do. He gets noted only in the opening scene and after that he's simply wasted. Kiran Raj is OK as Diwakar, the youngest of Durgaprasad's aides. Nandini as advocate Yamini, who appears in about two or three scenes, is OK, while Lakshmi as the hero's mother is good. Govind Padmasurya (of 'Adayalangal' fame) gets noted in a totally different and modern role, that of Durgaprasad's younger brother, an IT professional.
The only song in the film, which breaks the tempo of the film and which isn't catchy either, could easily have been avoided. The technical aspects gel with the theme. The editor however, could have gone in for faster cuts to give the kind of feel that people expect from these types of films. B. Unnikrishnan's script work is good, but it remains to be seen whether the film, which hasn't got a really big opening at any of the centers where it was released, makes it at the box office. The marketing aspect seems to have been totally neglected. The rather low turn-out at some centres, especially the smaller towns where not even sufficient posters were seen, is proof enough of the indifference shown towards marketing the film.
My take is that 'IG' is a much better film than Unnikrishnan's debut directorial venture, 'Smart City' (which wasn't very smart), and may do better business, but it won't stay as long at the box office as his last film 'Madambi'. And when you see the film you may tend to think like I did, that if the film was directed by Shaji Kailas with B. Unnikrishnan providing the script, it would have fared a lot better. Shaji Kailas is a master at this genre, while Unnikrishnan, though a good scenarist, is not.
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