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Let me begin by saying that I wasn’t a fan of the previous Althaf Salim Anarkali Marikar film Mandakini. I am saying this in the Review of the duo’s new film, Innocent, because the way they have tried to make this comedy movie in many areas reminded me of the reasons why Mandakini didn’t work for me, which is over-dependence on verbal comedy rather than the Story being able to create organic moments that are funny. Co-written and directed by Satheesh Thanvi, Innocent is one of those films where the makers think that having skit comedy throughout a film with an extremely basic Story idea can make a good entertainer. If you also follow that theory, this one will work for you.
Vinod, our hero, works in the Town Planning Office. His marriage was fixed with a young girl named Rajitha. One day, Vinod ate food from a well-known restaurant, and his stomach became upset. What Vinod had to go through after that was a series of events that eventually became a big humiliation for him. Vinod’s struggle to deal with that humiliation and how he eventually responds to that is what we see in Innocent.
This movie definitely has humor. But it is not the kind of humor that you will remember and think about and laugh again after the screening. And that is because they are trying to save generic storytelling here by making lines similar to TV show comedy skits. At the beginning of the movie, they even thanked the Television Writers Association. There is a constant tone shift happening in the film. The inciting incident that becomes the crux of the Story is shown as a comedy scene. You can predict every beat of that scene, and you can clearly see that the makers are exaggerating things for the sake of comedy and satirically critiquing the trend of social media justice. So after that overdone comedy track, the movie suddenly shifts to this serious phase where we see how much this whole episode has affected our hero. This inconsistency clearly exposes the fact that they don’t really have a solid Story.
Althaf Salim has established his own style over the past few years with the kind of characters he has portrayed. Vinod is also in that similar zone. Since the script here depends on momentary comedy rather than registering a character with pain, Althaf’s typical style works. Joemon Jyothir is doing one more hero’s friend character. With a lot of counter dialogues added during dubbing, Joemon has also done an appreciable job in rescuing a lackluster script. The backstory associated with the character of Anarkali Marikar had a possibility to show sensible romance on screen. But since the makers aren’t interested in making sense, Anarkali’s character just became a glorified side role. Azees Nedumangad, as the brother character, has nothing to contribute here. A lot of influencers and people who became viral sensations are getting cast here for one-scene roles, which pretty much makes this movie feel like a scam.
The writers of this movie, Shihab Karunagappally and Sarji Vijayan, have written television content like Marimayam and Uppum Mulakum. In my observation, many of these Malayalam sitcoms have depended on the banter humor that happens in between rather than having a proper conflict. I mean, the design of most of these shows rarely has the element of unpredictability. It is always the witty and natural conversations with satiric undertones that make them enjoyable. The problem with Innocent is that they are basically trying to stretch a 20-minute Marimayam episode about someone who unnecessarily gets trolled on social media. So the writing here has all the problems when you try to stretch 20 minutes to 2 hours. And the movie format is confusing the director about which tone to maintain. At times it is slapstick, at times it is satiric, and there are times it is very serious, and we even get a budget-constrained Shankar movie revolution in this film. The song that captured the depressed state of the hero was a really good one. The movie is pretty much overpowered by the background score to keep the viewers invested in the film.
Like I already said, there are so many witty moments in the movie, mostly due to mumbling counter dialogues that were definitely keeping the audience engaged. But there were portions where this comedy was becoming a burden. Like one scene where Althaf and Joemon decide to go after Anarkali to a hospital. If your idea of an entertaining comedy is laughing here and there for a basic Story and no need to recall a joke when you step out of the theater, well then, I would say this movie will feel like a passable entertainer.
Review By: Digitpatrox