Written by Sagar and directed by Jo George, the new prison break film in Malayalam, Azadi, is a great example of how mediocre writing can ruin a good twist. Before the movie’s release, the makers were making buzz around the film by saying stuff like their OTT rights had been already sold, the remake rights were in negotiation, etc. Well, looking at the final product, I am curious to know, at a time when superstar films are finding it difficult to get buyers, which OTT platform decided to purchase before release. And regarding the remake, yes, if they can rewrite this whole movie by maintaining the end twist, there is a scope for a fairly engaging thriller.
Raghu’s wife is in jail because she killed the murderer of her sister. She was pregnant while getting convicted in the case, and 7 months later, when her date was around the corner, the police had to shift her to a hospital. Raghu and his father-in-law, Sivan, found this as an opportunity to get her out of prison, and how they execute their plan is what we see in Azadi.
The writer of this movie, Sagar, has written and directed a few films like Veekam, Sathyam Mathrame Bodhippikku and Kanakarajyam. I have seen the last two, and they were pretty abysmal in terms of craft. The thing with Sagar’s script is that they all feel like a rehash of the kind of films that we have seen almost two decades back. When it comes to Azadi, there again, we can see the template nature of a jailbreak movie. Even if we forgive the writer for the template, the dialogue we hear the characters speak in this movie is really lousy, and you feel that Sagar has clearly underestimated the viewer. There are a couple of instances where the character played by Vani Vishwanath is acting confident, and anyone with experience of at least watching five films would know that she was inviting trouble.
Sreenath Bhasi, with that remorseless face throughout the film, fits into the mold of the character when we eventually realize his history. Lal is playing this goon with an emotional side, and one creative suggestion to all people who want to cast him in the future is to not make his character cough. Rajesh Sharma is playing one more eccentric, stupid character. Abhiram Radhakrishnan gets the role of that typical character who is involved in the whole thing purely because of money. Abin Binu is a mere comic relief. It’s good to see people deciding to cast Shoby Thilakan rather than making him dub for some other actor.
Vani Vishwanath should seriously not allow new filmmakers to make her do a mimicry of her vintage self. I mean, the dialogues of Vani Vishwanath in this movie were utterly flawed. Raveena Ravi, who is known for her dubbing skills, plays a mute girl in the film, and that pretty much sums up the standard of the creative decision making of this film. Gilu Joseph and TG Ravi are all part of the cast, and I have no clue what was the purpose of Saiju Kurup’s character in the film.
Like I already said, the twist at the end of the tale is definitely a catchy one. But what all you have to endure till that point is what makes the movie somewhat insufferable. Sagar wants this to be a cat-and-mouse game between the hero and the police, and he has no solid plan to set it up. At one point, even though there was an opportunity for the police to catch the hero, they let him go, and the reason was extremely futile. The execution of the plan was so elaborate and visually lame that even the clever misdirection felt exhausting. Even when I backtracked the whole thing, some of the decisions and certain panics that got set among the group just didn’t make sense. And it was almost like the writing was helping the protagonists by making the police act like fools.
Azadi is a movie that had the potential to be at least engaging if it had better writing. The way it conceals the whole plan is actually interesting on a conceptual level, but when the writing forces you to look at every twist with a frowning face, it becomes very difficult to enjoy a thriller like this. If your film viewing frequency is extremely low, Azadi might feel like a passable watch.
