Padma (12th night, 2nd show, status :30%)
First half of the film is on investigation mode and second half is a court room drama.
The film has its major flaws but when you look into the final product it's decent and definitely worth a watch. I thought the first half lacked the finese in direction required for a film that deals with investigation. Added to that certain actors were miscast and spoiled the show.
The actor who played crime branch officer (against whom fahad fought in Mahesh) was an absolute dud. His acting and dubbing ruined many scenes.
Thankfully second half was more engaging. The film become interesting after Nimisha's character make her entry. The rhythm is maintained till end and saves the film from mediocrity.
Agonizingly painful songs that appears occasionally was another major negative.
Nimisha was fantastic. Her performance was measured, accurate and nuanced. Tovino is unfortunately saddled with a character written on single note and is just about okay. Sudheer karamana and nedumudi were good in their brief roles.
I really liked the way they showed the manipulation done by police and their modus of operandi while dealing with such cases.
The film did remind me of certain instances of Jisha murder. Especially the reference of slippers that police didn't do follow up.
Rating would be a generous 3/5
