Month: March 2015

Mumbai Police (2013) #SherylPuthur

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Mumbai-Police-Malayalam-Movie-Poster-10

Directed By: Rosshan Andrrews

Written By: Bobby-Sanjay

Cast:

Prithviraj Sukumaran– ACP Antony Moses

Jayasurya – ACP Aaryan Jacob

Rahman – CP Farhan Ashraf

Hima Davis –Rebecca

Aparna Nair – Rakhee Menon

Deepa Rahul Ishwar – Annie Farhan

Nihal Pillai – Pilot

Language: Malayalam                                                 Genre: Crime-Thriller

Rosshan Andrrews’ 2013 crime-thriller Mumbai Police is a psychological study into the drives and motivations of a person. It is about the various masks we wear; how we project ourselves and how guilt and regret when entwined can bring out traumatic responses.

The story revolves around ACP Antony Moses aka Rascal Moses (Prithviraj) a rather aggressive police officer who is known for his ruthless methodology and ability to get work done, the means no bar.

He is investigating the murder of his friend and colleague ACP Aaryan Jacob (Jayasurya) and finds a vital clue to the identity of the murderer and in fact actually knows who killed him but before he can confide everything to his senior officer CP Farhan Ashraf (Rahman) – he is involved in an almost fatal accident. He survives it physically but his memory doesn’t.

Now an amnesiac Antony Moses has to solve this high profile case and figure out who the killer is before time runs out. It becomes a cat and mouse game but what is unclear is who the cat is and who is the mouse.

Antony Moses B, the amnesiac, needs to find out what Antony Moses A knew and bring it to light. Yet he cannot recognise friend or foe and Antony Moses A had a lot of foes. He is randomly attacked by people, yet his kinaesthetic memory of fighting saves him. It also becomes clear that Antony Moses A was trying to protect someone, because the entire investigation is full of subterfuge. So suddenly, everyone is suspicious.

But more than a murder, it is about identity. It is about machismo in all male organisations and what defines masculinity. How aggression can be used as a mask. Also when certain aspects of identity are hidden to us because of a loss of memory then certain behaviour patterns are lost. There are also many references to the duties of a police officer, the oath they take – how everything is a rigidly defined system that has everything clearly stated as rules. And deviations are not allowed.

A telling scene in the film, when Antony Moses B is contemplating who he is and has only questions but no answers. He realises he will understand better only if he dons the uniform. So the shot has Antony Moses looking at his wardrobe and then turning towards his uniform that is propped on a hanger. He walks towards it and his shadow looms over it to form a shadowy head above the collar. Almost like, he is in the dark about the identity of this person and what lies behind the uniform.

What stands out is the very moving portrayal by Prithviraj as ACP Antony Moses; especially when certain damaging revelations are made. Certain sequences seem rather stereotypical but that might have to do with a limited understanding of certain behaviour patterns. Nevertheless, it is a film that gives a rather realistic portrayal of things that are generally left unspoken.

Galileo – TV Series (2007) #SherylPuthur

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Directed By: Hiroshi Nishitani

Written By: Keigo Higashino; Yasushi Fukuda; Osho Furuya; Otaro Matsumoto

Cast:

Masaharu Fukuyama – Manabu Yukawa

Kou Shibasaki – Kaoru Utsumi

Kazuki Kitamura – Shunpei Kusanagi

Hiroshi Shinagawa –Shiro Yuge

Ikkei Watanabe – Hiromi Kuribayashi

Miki Maya – Sakurako Jonouchi

                               Language: Japanese                                                                   Genre: Mystery-Thriller

Number of Episodes: 10                                                                             Run Time: 58 minutes

 

After reading up on Suspect X, I found that it was actually a movie spin-off of a crime thriller TV series – Galileo. Suddenly, it came as a realisation that the characters I saw take centre stage later, were actually the most important.

So the story revolves around Utusmi (Kou Shibasaki), a rookie cop who is trying to carve a space for herself in a rather patriarchal and chauvinistic police force. She wants to emulate her senior Kusanagi (Kazuki Kitamura), who had created a name for himself by solving tough cases and was now promoted to a higher branch.

The pilot episode is about how Utsumi and her partner Yuge (Hiroshi Shinagawa) are assigned a ‘supernatural’ case – a young man’s head suddenly catches fire. She turns to Kusanagi for help, only to be told that he solved his cases with help from his college friend, a genius physicist from Teito University – Manabu Yukawa (Masaharu Fukuyama).

Enter Yukawa sensei also known as Galileo sensei – who does not believe that there is anything like supernatural and there is and can only be a scientific explanation for everything.

So all the cases start off seeming rather supernatural like a child levitating or a poltergeist rattling houses and so on. Sometimes it is quite obvious who might be the perpetrator but it’s not the suspense so much as how Yukawa sensei scientifically explains it. It’s thus a very Sherlockian story – more about deduction and even Yukawa sensei seems a lot like Sherlock – not very social, highly intelligent and has the strangest skill set (squash, mountain climbing, sculpturing…). Also when he figures out something he randomly starts scribbling out equations with whatever he can find. Utsumi is like Watson – humane. She also believes in the ‘detective’s intuition’ which Yukawa sensei rejects as not very scientific but it does come as very useful. There is however an underlying plotline that seems to talk of the possibility of attraction between them. If the ending song is a narrative then this chemistry is more vocalised then. Interestingly, it is sung by Kou Shibasaki and the music has been composed by Masaharu Fukuyama.

Each episode deals with some interesting supernatural phenomenon which is given a scientific twist – healthy girl dies suddenly – a man murdered in a locked room – a reader of crystal balls called by his soul-mate only to be shot as a stalker – a woman who dies twice – a murdered woman astral projects herself to her sister who is a few kilometres away. The last two episodes are connected and are a brilliant end to an intelligent series. Also I must mention that the episode of the poltergeist is an especial favourite because it is about a house that rattles at night due to an ‘unhappy ghost’.

So just like Yukawa sensei says ‘jitsu ni omoshiroi’ (really interesting) when he is intrigued by something and wants to figure it out. This series is definitely Omoshiroi!