Anand Sreebala Review | A Generic Investigation Thriller With Zero Takeaways

There is a scene in the film Anand Sreebala where the title character, played by Arjun Ashokan, asks the character, played by Sidhique, about how he will approach the case of the death of an ant that was taken out of a cup of hot tea. Anand lists out three possible ways to look at that case, and it was an interesting way to show the idea of perspective in investigation. But this idea of looking at the case from a different point of view is not really used in this crime thriller. Similar to this, a lot of the unique premise ideas in this film stay away from the core idea, and hence, you leave the theater with the feeling of having watched a pretty generic investigation thriller with zero takeaways.

The movie revolves around the death of a young girl named Merin Joy. She was found dead in a nearby lake in Kochi one day after her family filed a missing complaint. The police found enough evidence to believe that it was a suicide. However, the family was not convinced by that investigation. Sometime later, a TV journalist named Sreebala decides to cover this case in her program about unresolved cases, and she takes the help of her aspiring police officer boyfriend Anand for this case. What we see in the movie is the parallel investigation done by Anand, whose mother, Sreebala, was also a police officer.

SPOILERS AHEAD! I will have to mention some crucial details that were not in the trailer in order to review this film. So it will have some spoilers. Including the commercially successful Malikappuram, I have not been a fan of the scripts of Abhilash Pillai because I have found them very generic in terms of how the ideas are presented to the audience. I am saying this because since the movie is a crime thriller, there is a possibility that some people will only focus on the twists and turns rather than the presentation, and for that category, the movie might feel like an okay one.

The case in focus here is rarely getting the feeling that something fishy is happening around it. In the 2004 film Sethurama Iyer CBI, when Isow claims he has not done one of the murders, the movie manages to create a sense of curiosity in the heads of the audience. In the case of Anand Sreebala, the central case doesn’t get that kind of a mysterious attraction. When they eventually do get some hints, and Abhilash Pillain decides to expand that crime, the beats of that investigation start to feel very familiar. The way the film has set up the connection between the mother and son is interesting on paper. But on screen, the presentation of that delusional bond looked very cheesy. And the dialogue the mother says is flatter than some of the cheesy motivational quotes you find on Instagram.

The movie marks the directorial debut of Vishnu Vinay, the son of director Vinayan. While his choice of crew has definitely reduced the thick strokes feel of the film, I think he could have handled some of the melodramatic elements in a better way. Rather than the mother sentiment, neither Abhilash Pillai nor Vishnu Vinay is able to place the Sreebala character effectively in the script. When Saiju Kurup’s character expresses his wish to salute Sreebala, the scene just doesn’t land simply because Sreebala just couldn’t create an impact on the viewers. To make Merin Joy a strong girl who wouldn’t opt for suicide, Abhilash Pillai makes one of the characters say that Merin is the kind of girl who prefers to remember Pulwama martyrs on Valentine’s Day. The background score by Ranjin Raj was in sync with the meter of the treatment. Kiran Das has managed to keep the narrative alive for a larger part of the runtime.

Arjun Ashokan, as the talented rookie investigator with the mother issue, was fine in his character. While the innocent approach in investigation bits looked genuine, the way the character loses it all whenever the name of the mother is dragged into anything felt slightly animated. Sangita, who marks a comeback after a considerable gap, as Sreebala has very little to do here. If the dialogues written for her didn’t sound like a mother motivating her KG student child, I think even the sporadic bits would have made a good impact. Aparna Das, as the hero’s partner, was fine in a character that she could easily sleepwalk. Malavika Manoj plays the important role of Merin Joy in the film, and it was a fine performance. Saiju Kurup, as the ego-hurt police officer, delivers a refined performance considering the film’s tone. The elaborate cast of the film has names like Sidhique, Nandu, Sshivada, Manoj KU, etc., along with Bashid Basheer as the lover of Merin Joy.

In the Shaji Kailas Renji Panicker era, we used to see these crime thrillers that were based on some of the real cases that were either under trial or unresolved and they would build an imaginary story about what could have happened. If you are someone who believes, that style of creating thrillers still can attract people on a creative level, then Anand Sreebala might work for you. I didn’t hate this film or regret the time I spent to watch this film. But despite being a thriller, the predictability sort of makes it a movie that you will forget the moment you leave the theater.