Iratta – movie review

Recently saw this Malayalam movie in Netflix and wanted to share my thoughts. When I read the reviews, it mentioned about a twist in climax and every single one of them had spoken so highly about the same. As if all the reviewers sat together, had a chat, and posted the content, every single one of the reviews was uniformly same, that the entire run up till the climax is slow and towards the last 30 minutes, the movie picks pace culminating into the climax twist! I felt, more than twist in climax, it was a twisted climax!! The story is about 2 identical twins, both serving in Police department, at the same station, one as Deputy Superintendent and other as Assistant Sub inspector. There is no suspense or twist in their back story, with both being blood brothers, having an abusive alcoholic father and separated at a young age with one of them staying with the mother and the unlucky one with the father. The father dies a gory death, as a punishment for his sins and the sibling who ended up with the dad, grows up to resent the brother and the mother for having abandoned him with the dad. He ends up picking all the bad behaviours from the dad, gambles with abandon and lives a filthy life chasing behind women and possibly completing all the sins in any given day. He meets one lady who herself is suffering from an abusive relationship with her husband. After rescuing her and falling for her, the bad brother slowly mends his ways, and his life seems to be turning for the better when he commits suicide inside the police station. In fact, the story begins with the noise of gun shots inside the police station, where this guy lies dead in a pool of his own blood. The investigation and multiple character inputs, describe the life and style of the deceased and towards the climax the other brother, steps in and wraps the case as suicide in couple of minutes. The pending block still being the reason why he committed suicide, which happens to be the “twist” in the tale. There are certain movies that wins over audience because of the surprise element in the end. Some manage the same with a shock element, that is not necessarily a happy one and very rarely a positive one at that. This movie falls into the second category. What would’ve otherwise been a simple homicide investigation where a dead cop within police station at the midst of an event, with the entire station full of police and the evidence conclusively proving it to be a case of suicide, would’ve hardly merited any raising eyebrows, but for a bad name to the department. It might’ve even got closed with a cry for stress and the work pressure subjected on the individuals donning the khaki cloth. But the “twisted” ending makes it a dark story with pitch black ending. Some may say it is poetic to an extent but the shock element as to the reason why he commits suicide stays with you for so long after the end credits roll. The man who has played the dual role has done adequate as the irate police and subdued successful DSP part. Anjali has a blink and miss role with hardly any dialog. In fact, most of the dialogues in the movie are by supporting cast, who takes the story forward by their narration and experiences with the deceased. The otherwise boring movie more than makes up for it with the dark ending that literally make you double take on what the hell you just saw!!