The Reporter Malayalam Movie
I would be extremely obliged if someone explained why Venugopan's film 'The Reporter' has been titled as such. I do agree that there is a television journalist in there who appears once in a while, but otherwise the film has nothing to do with reporting, or journalism for that matter!
When six people from different walks of life are kidnapped, one after the other, the police is mystified. Apparently with no clues, the case throws them into a quandary, and the media has a field day celebrating the incompetence of the investigation team.
This film, let me assure you, has very little to the do with the investigation as such. In fact, the only redeeming feature in the movie, is the way in which two parallel tracks are made to meet at the climax, with some perplexity being brought in regarding their timelines.
There is Aby (Kalish) and his uncle (Jagathy Sreekumar) who are overjoyed that the youngster has finally found the girl of his dreams. Sara (Abhinaya) is a self-assured girl who immediately makes sure that her fiance has a ring tone - a classic song from the Bollywood hit 'Aandhi' - that would remind him of her.
The reporter, (Ananya) that we have been looking around for, makes an appearance, as she peers out of the window of the channel office, and later unearths a police wireless from a garbage pile. We realize within no time, that her contributions to the film are bound to be minimal, and our intuition turns out to be just right.
And thus it goes, until the revelation is made as to where the six people have disappeared. Without doubt, it is one of the most convoluted twits that have been invented in recent times, and it does not appear convincing or the least bit credible.
The wait for the real game to begin is exasperating, and when it becomes obvious that nothing more than the timid and tame could be expected of it, boredom sets in, and that too quite at the start. Struggling hard to find its groove, 'The Reporter' reels under the mediocrity of its script, before giving in once and for all.
There are the very faint resemblances to a few celebrated crime investigations that we have heard of in recent times, but eventually nothing comes out of it. If 'The Reporter' comes across as a highly compromised piece of film making, it only has its decrepit script to blame.
As it heads towards it climax, 'The Reporter' shows signs of aging as well. I wonder if something was wrong with the screening yesterday, but the screen looked bleak for a while, almost as if reflecting the sad state of affairs.
When an actor like Samuthirakani appears ill at ease in a film, I guess it speaks more of the script that he has been offered. The only respite in this melee is to watch Jagathy Sreekumar in action yet again, after a very long while. The saddest part is watching Abhinaya in action, since something seems to have gone very wrong with her dubbing, with the spoken words being no match with the way she has mouthed the lines.
'The Reporter' is weakly scripted, poorly shot and dimly directed. There is little shine it, and even lesser bite.
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