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Director of Puzhu, cinematographer of Bramayugam, writer of Ela Veezha Poonchira, and the music of Jakes Bejoy. There were enough and more reasons for me to feel excited about the new movie from Ratheena, Pathirathri, starring Navya Nair and Soubin Shahir. However, it felt like almost every department in this movie failed to live up to the expectations. Even though it is narrated as a thriller, the beats of this movie are extremely familiar to us, and it is a movie where none of the new developments will feel exciting to the audience. They are trying to salvage the film through these last-minute twists, but by that time, the movie had slipped away from that savable space.
SI Jancy and Constable Hareesh are our main characters. In their respective personal lives, both are going through a rough patch. One night, when both of them were on night patrol, they happened to witness something unusual. But considering the possible consequences they may have to face, Hareesh advises Jancy not to report it. What we see in Pathirathri is the repercussions of this action.
The whodunit aspect of this Story is not really a gripping one. Most of the details about the death in question and the suspects are given to us in the early parts of the movie itself. And the backstories here are those usual ones that won’t give us any sort of excitement. I think Ratheena and her writer, Shaji Marad, know that aspect, and they are actually trying to make us empathize with the personal side of most of the main characters. The lack of refinement in the writing makes those efforts look like inconsequential subplots when we watch the movie. Before we could really process the problems happening in these people’s lives, the film forces us to feel bad for them by adding emotional songs a bit too frequently.
There is a part in the movie where Soubin’s character literally asks Navya not to overdo it, as it clearly makes many things obvious for everyone. The script’s intention is to show this character as a humane one with guilt and concern. But Navya’s performance lacks subtlety, and hence, the audience was laughing at Hareesh’s remarks. Soubin Shahir, as the slightly arrogant and judgmental policeman who is going through a divorce, was okay in his role. Sunny Wayne’s extended cameo-like role was fine until he opened his mouth in a ferocious manner in the final moments. Ann Augustine and Athmiya Rajan have important roles in the film, with very little to do on screen. Kannada actor Achyuth Kumar plays a significant role in the movie, and I believe this casting was done to avoid all the typecasting predictabilities. Almost every cast member in this movie, including veterans like Indrans and Harishree Ashokan, is struggling with dialogue delivery.
Whether it was Indrans saying he couldn’t move a finger, or Sunny Wayne yelling about his true love, or Shabareesh’s initial rhetoric about understanding the meaning of a relationship, it almost felt like Ratheena didn’t allow any of the actors to tweak the written lines. The soul of this movie lies in the emotions of pretty much all the characters, and it was not the twists and turns of a thriller. But when you make actors speak about their characters’ pain and confusion in the format of a radio drama, it just sucks out the emotion from the Story. A lot of the things in the initial stages of the movie, like the sequence that shows Navya catching a thief, to Soubin dealing with things in family court, they all sort of felt like forcefully added bits that wouldn’t have made much of a difference even if they were chopped in the edit table. Shehnad Jalal is trying to keep the movie in the gritty zone with his cinematography. The background score from Jakes Bejoy felt pretty ordinary, and it had somewhat of an outdated style which we used to hear in movies written by Benny P Nairambalam or Udaykrishna almost two decades ago.
Pathirathri wants us to empathize with every character who had to go through some sort of pain they didn’t deserve. Unfortunately, the writing of the movie is unsure about how to achieve that in a minimal and fresh manner. With dialogues that overshare information and characterizations that fail to create any sort of intrigue, Ratheena’s movie falls flat in conveying its emotional core to the audience.
Review By: Digitpatrox