Action Hero Biju

A ride with a police officer, that’s the tag line of the film Action Hero Biju and it is exactly that. If you are looking for a revenge action “story” movie, this one from Abrid Shine might not work for you, but if you are open to explore a different aspect of policing which we haven’t seen much in Malayalam cinema, Action hero Biju is a good choice. It is not the exaggerated “sync sound” realistic cinema. It has humor, irony, sentiments and most importantly a police officer whom we haven’t really seen in Celluloid.

SI Biju Paulose is the central protagonist of the movie. He is a dedicated police officer who is committed to solve every case in his jurisdiction using various tactics. The movie basically is a journey through a number of cases Biju had to go through and thus it shows us the routine life of a committed police officer.

It is a film a conventional viewer might ask “what’s the story?” Because the film isn’t running on a story oriented idea. We have seen many iconic police characters in the past that were all speaking printed language with excessive English. Those characters always had only one “mega” antagonist and the film will be built around that revenge. Here there is no such thing for you. It is actually a series of cases of various kinds. Job fraud, marriage issues, extra marital affairs, usage of drugs, vehicle theft, robbery, domestic violence etc. are the main cases our hero is investigating. Surprisingly each of these cases adds flavor to the movie.

I thought Abrid Shine was a bit lucky as he catered nostalgia that worked for a larger audience in 1983. But this time I was totally impressed by the huge risk he took. Casting Nivin Pauly at the peak of his career to do such a character and to execute it a really engaging manner is worth appreciation. The script isn’t a story oriented one and it focuses more on being true to the tagline of the film. The irony, humor, sentiments elements of the film are actually injected in the various cases Biju Paulose had to look in to. And the screenplay succeeds in connecting each story. The only area I felt the movie lacked realism was towards the climax where our hero was a bit filmier. A better picturization would have made it a little more convincing. Cinematography from debutant Alex J Pulickal is impressive as it helps Biju in being real. Edits were also fine. Special mention to the sync sound team for giving an impressive output. Jerry Amaldev’s tunes were used nicely to visualize situations and the minimal BGMs were also fine.

The script I feel has allowed Nivin Pauly to behave rather than acting. He definitely looked like a sensible and real police officer and a credit for that should go to the director for keeping the conversations in the sensible zone. Anu Emmanuel doesn’t have much of a “screen time”; 80% of her role in AHB is available on YouTube. Joju George, Sohan Seenulal, Kalabhavan Prajod were really impressive. Saiju Kuruppu and Major Ravi were fine in their supporting roles. Round of applauds to Suraaj Venjaramood for that small yet heart wrenching performance. The film has a really elaborate cast including Vinduja Menon, Rohini, Devi Ajith, Jude Anthony, Sajan Palluruthy etc. and everyone looked apt for the role.

On the whole, Action Hero Biju is humorous, real, emotional and atypical.  It has multiple messages for us, but there is no conventional preaching. If you are someone who likes to see humor and sentimental scenes without the company of theatrical dialogues and music, Action Hero Biju will entertain you. Except for the level of climax heroics, everything else in Action Hero Biju made the cinema lover in me really happy.