Forensic(2020)

Tries too hard to impress, fails miserably in the end !!

Tovino starer Forensic is one of the new additions to the thriller genre in Malayalam industry. The movie revolves around an investigation in the pursuit of a serial killer who kidnaps and kills small kids. The investigation is lead by Rithika Xavier IPS(Mamta) and Samuel John Kattookkaran (Tovino) is her Medico-Legal Advisor for the case. Their quest to unravel the mysteries forms the rest of the plot.

Foresnsic, at start was setup nicely to be a thriller, with kidnap and murder of kids under mysterious circumstances. But in Tovino’s introduction scene itself, he is shown as super intelligent. We can see him solve a case within 2 minutes, just indicating what is to follow. Whole movie seems to be made to showcase the brilliance of Samuel John instead of making a sensible thriller. **Spoilers Ahead** He cracks the path of a kid who went missing through the tunnel, matching the forensic evidence he has, with so much ease. Just by simply looking at the photograph of the dumped body near a wall, he declared the killer doesn’t have the height to lift the body over the wall and it could be a kid that they were after. So simple!! Ok.. Ok.. I convinced my mind that Samuel John is a ‘superhero’ forensic officer, but the real let down comes with the revelation of the psycho killer, the strangest one I have watched on screen. A psycho who never wants his son to know about the nature of his father, but at the same time chooses to carry a dead body in his car trunk and disposes it inside a school bus, all within the sight of his son. He chooses not to even clean (forget about evidences) the shed in his backyard where he kills his victims, which eventually is found out by his son. There are numerous other problems I could not digest, the psycho killer putting the chocolate wrapper in the bin, how easily the kids accompany the visibly dangerous psycho kid, the Samuel John show at the river bed to name a few. **Spoilers End** These are a very few striking ones in a mountain of problems in the script. The makers did have so many forensic tricks and tips at their disposal, but they failed to make a convincing narrative out of it. This is where Anjaam Pathira (2020) was a resounding success. The investigation team’s struggles were portrayed in a highly convincing manner compared to Foresnsic. The only plus I can see in the whole script here is that the writers didn’t connect Samuel John and Forensic intern, Shikha Damodar (Reba Monica John) through “love” even though the premises were set for that.

Tovino was ‘ok’ as the forensic official and Mamta looked apt for the role, she manages the emotional side of the police officer really well. The rest of the crew were strictly passable. Jakes Bejoy’s background score and visuals by Akhil George were really the saving graces of the movie as most of the time these two factors keeps you engaged.

Making a thriller without loopholes and impressing the viewers at the same time is a very difficult job. Forensic fails in both of these fronts. It was engaging at times and could have been a decent thriller,but for me, the numerous loopholes and piles of forensic science sprayed all over make you loose your connection with the plot. It tries too hard to impress, but fails miserably!!