Of books and movies

Many a time, when you read a good book, you are tempted to think about its screen adaptation. Especially those genres that set your imagination on fire like LOTR or Harry Potter series. Thriller genres that kindle your intellectual curiosity and are really tricky to make it suitable for large screen audience. Especially murder mystery stories set in the template of Agatha christie, where most of the action happens over conversations, the facts that are available with the detective being presented to the reader as well. In such a cramped environment, where the only thrill for the reader being, are they able to out think the lead detective in breaking the case, making it into a 2+ hour long movie and still managing to keep the audience engaged is a skill in itself. Cinema being a visual medium primarily, makes it more challenging to engage the visual senses along with your aural and mental faculties and is a real test for the director/screenplay writer’s skill, in ensuring such genres/best seller stories, meets the expectations of the audience. 12th man (Malayalam movie) comes close to achieving this balance. 

The director (Jeethu joseph) has already established himself as a successful maker of thriller stories, with the superhit Drishyam franchise already under his belt. In this movie, he tries Agatha christie type murder mystery, set in a resort- involving 4 couples one divorced lady, a newly engaged couple, who had thrown the party for all 11 of them- where one of the 11 dies under suspicious situation. Like Murder on the Orient express or Death on the Nile, where Poirot gets pulled accidentally into the investigation while on vacation, in this story also, the investigator happens to be around the resort at the same time of the incident, accidentally. In a movie with runtime close to 170 minutes, almost 3/4th’s of the movie happens within one room, where almost the whole movie cast are seated around a long oval table, with their version of the events told on a series of mini and micro flashbacks. The end reveal was a bit of dampener for me, as I felt it would be similar to the ending on the  orient express, but it wasn’t. Nevertheless, the director does manage to hold on to the audience for a major while, with the simple investigative approach, easily understandable and relatable to audience. It is simple at the same time effective and logical as well, where all the party members are asked to keep their phone on the table and attend the calls in speaker mode or even read out loud their Whatsapp messages. The resort and its setting definitely adds a richness to the setting. You may not call it a flip side, which actually does work in the favor of the movie, the fact being, no obvious suspects. In fact as the investigation progresses, every one gets acquitted one by one except for the doctor. With her wide eyed expressions I was rooting for her to be the perpetrator, but spoiler alert – she wasn’t. 

Had this movie been made mainstream in tamil, they would’ve added mandatorily comic tracks, romance songs, at least one fight where the culprit tries to break free and have a fist fight with the investigator and possibly some caricatures of a weirdo, who even a kid will tell would’ve had nothing to do with the crime. As much as the making has been near perfect to adapting a book reading into big screen, I felt it was making a case against it as well. At some point, the movie felt like the director discussing the screen play with his assistants, throwing up questions on each characters response and coming up with a logical piece to fit in the puzzle. But that is the nature of the plot and kudos to the maker for sticking to his guns. 

Gils verdict - 12th man is definitely a decent watch and makes it to the playing eleven of thriller movies, at least based on those released recently.