'Masters' (Malayalam)
Director: Johny Antony
Cast: Prithviraj, Sasikumar, Ananya, Pia Bajpai, Mukesh, Biju Menon
It is always thrilling to see the craft of certain filmmakers in untying the Gordian Knot that encircles a murder in investigative films. If K G George’s ‘Yavanika’ is in a class by itself in this genre, Malayalam also witnessed the investigative calibre of Sethuramaiyyer in ‘Oru CBI Diary Kurippu,’ another notable hit that falls in this category. Apart from these two movies, though an array of murder mysteries were made in Malayalam, only a few have made an impact at the box office. Director Johnny Antony’s new venture ‘Masters’ is the new addition to the brainteaser category, which is far ahead of some of the recent thrillers that run of the thrill.
Revolving around the friendship between Kottayam ASP Sreeramakrishnan (Prithviraj) and journalist Milan Paul, whose acquaintance began from their college days. The former is entrusted with the investigation of the murder of Balagangadharan (Vijayaraghavan) by a suicide bomber- Daksha (Piaa Bajpayee). Sree seeks the help of Milan for initial cues and starts the investigation, but soon another murder takes place in the city. From here on, the thriller mode is activated. Performance wise, Prithviraj is apt in Sreeramakrishnan’s role.
Unfortunately, Sasikumar, who makes his debut to Malayalam, fails to impress with his mediocre performance as Milan. It is an okay performance from actors like Ananya, Mitra Kurian and Piaa, though they have nothing much to do in the film. Madhu Neelakandan’s camera work syncs well with the chiller tone of the theme while Gopi Sundar’s background score is strictly average.
Though the movie cannot be rated high to the levels of its successful predecessors, ‘Masters’ ends up as a spick-and-span squeaker, heavily credited to the cool making style of the director and a well-arranged script by Jinu Abraham. The movie travels in a predictable way after tea break, but the novel manner in which the array of murders are linked acts as an X-factor which saves the movie and keeps the spectators glued to the screens till the end. The movie definitely has some moments in it, nothing much to praise and interestingly nothing much to blame too.