Theerppu Movie Review: An overfilled experiment held together by a subversive Prithviraj performance

Starring: Prithviraj Sukumaran, Indrajith Sukumaran, Isha Talwar, Murali Gopy

Director: Rathish Ambat

Rating: 3/5

Review By Arjun Menon

Murali Gopi seems to be a writer obsessed with conceptual novelty over diluted plot contrivances. This can be seen throughout his filmography in the forms of storytelling archetypes being frequently employed to idealize the human condition in direct cohorts with its political identity. Theerppu, his latest collaboration with director Rathish Ambat after Kammarasambhavam, a clever spoof of the “biopic syndrome”, about a bloated-up traitor being treated as a political hero in the new age, failed to garner commercial success however later found its audience post streaming with its highbrow satire, creative design and mounting. Setting up this context is important in the case of Theerppu as the film echoes the thematic concerns wrapped within the confines of the sub-genre of “the home invasion drama.” and run-of-the-mill revenge thriller tropes.

The plot of Theerppu is incidental to the core ideas that form the central thesis of the narrative. The makers have been marketing the film as an allegory, a sort of narrative design where the events on screen are meant to be a mere stand-in for more severe social and political commentary. However, the issue with adopting such a narrative conceit, within the mainstream, bangs on the deftness in execution as the film needs to work as a coherent narrative, even for those who do not connect with the core ideas being thrown at you at breath neck speed, on first viewing. The filmmakers have to walk the tightrope of being entertaining and still not run the risk of condescending towards the not-so-easily initiated member of the audience for a shot at political and ideological engagement from the viewer.

Theerppu is the story of four childhood friends, whose past connects and repels their tumultuous relationship as the result of a betrayal and vows broken. The film kicks into action with Parameshwaran Potty (Saiju Kuruppu) and his wife Prabha (Hannah Reji Koshy) visiting his childhood friend Ram (Vijay Babu) and partner Mythilli ( Isha Talwar, in his their newly renovated resort , a place filled with relics and passes of as a sassy art gallery in the middle of nowhere. Parameshwaran and his wife need investment for their prospective business and are hopeful of convincing Ram to join forces in clearing their debts and setting up shop as per plans. We also get the fourth friend DIG Kalyan Menon
(Indrajith Sukumaran) as the fourth wheel who is also drawn into the events in the later half.

However, the already awkward meetup of the long-estranged friends, with sleazy flirting, uneasy exchanges and an eerie sense of contempt is interrupted by the third friend, a vagabond like a writer Abdulla Marakkar (Prithviraj Sukumaran), who is shown to be having issues with his mental health, an extension of piled up trauma from the past, by his own admission earlier on to his bed-ridden mother. We get these stereotypical setups for a run-of-the-mill home invasion thriller with giant portraits of Stalin, Gandhi’s spectacles, Che Guevara’s shoulder bag, two unsettling statues of Hitler and Mussolini with a hilarious dash of Amitabh Bachchan, Bruce Lee and Mohammed Ali, all thrown in to drive this wild, convoluted plot mechanics that works for most parts.

Murali Gopi knows his strengths at seamlessly combining genre mainstays with frequent blurts of historical references and provocative literal motifs, within the boundaries of commercial cinema that entertains and engages. However, the writing here feels a tad too direct and laboured in its approach at mining novelty at places. For instance, we get scenes in the latter half of the film, where there are gunshots directed at Gandhi’s spectacles and Safdar Hashmi’s writing pen on display inside the art gallery-like hall, with a character, contemplating on the political implications of these gunshots, with a stoic faced introspection. This kind of fiery, no holds barred critique on moral blindness, freedom of expression, speech and the rise of propagated hatred and the gradual upheaval of the right-wing forces, is thrown away with the formality of narrative exposition not adding much to the character work but building on subsequent layers.

The film is populated with umpteen such images and allegorical callbacks to history parallel to the events of the home invasion simultaneously. Ratheesh Ambat is self-aware of the complex transgressive nature of the whole exercise and revels in punctuating the excesses in its seeped in observations on our political unrest of the morally conflicting times in human existence. The performances are all played out in broad strokes, with Saiju Kuruppu and Indajith walking away with some of the funny lines towards the latter half. Prithviraj is highly functional in the part and gets the innate craziness and zinger nature of the vengeful hero though the part gets one-dimensional after a point until it becomes a narrative device used by the writing to get across the core idea, as a living, breathing literal entity, representing the powerless pawns discarded by the system. The women in the movie have not much to do but rather stand around as clueless witnesses to the men’s brawl, they are token stand-in placeholders for the audience to discover the tragic series of events that lead to the fatal night. Theerppu is an unadulterated experiment in conceiving an astutely political idea as a film essay with the technical team working at the top of their game and characters who are self-aware of the high-stakes political commentary done through the means of exploiting commercial cinema conventions.

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Check out the film’s trailer below: