Innale Vare

When you, as an audience, crack the suspense of a movie within the first half an hour, which was supposed to get revealed at the very end of the movie, the viewing experience becomes a test. And you are expecting the director to surprise you with something beyond your prediction. The issue with Jis Joy’s attempt at a thriller, Innale Vare, is exactly that. It fails to hide the suspense factor convincingly and then struggles to create moments that can engage the viewer.

Adhi Shankar is a famous actor who is going through a rough patch. He has an affair with a former colleague, and he is currently in love with another girl. His last few films tanked, and he desperately wants his new film to work to clear the financial debts. One day while he was going to meet his girlfriend, his car broke down, and a fan offered him a lift. But things took a different turn when this fan decided to lock him up in a flat. What happens after that and who is this fan is what we get to see in Innale Vare.

Scripting a thriller is a tough job as the audience will always approach the puzzle with an investigative mind. People will have their theories in their heads, and the quality of a brilliant writer is to surpass all that and deliver something beyond their prediction. The emphasis Jis Joy gives to a small scene at the beginning of the film was so high that, when the thrilling bits of the movie started, I started to connect the mystery with that episode. And not to my surprise, my theory was correct, and I am not even proud of cracking this lame mystery. The way the kidnappers tried to fool the people around Adhi Shankar into believing that he was okay never had conviction, and maybe this incoherent feeling might have been the reason Bobby Sanjay never bothered making a script out of this story.

Asif Ali goes back to his Hi, I Am Tony zone with angry outbursts. The star act was a bit eccentric, while the survival phase looked real. Nimisha Sajayan, as the fan with a plan, was fine. Shani’s desperation and determination are portrayed convincingly by her. For a change, Antony Varghese is not hyper here. It’s not a challenging role with a lot of screen space. But maybe it will help him try out something new in the future. Athulya Chandra got a character with scope to perform. Reba John, Rony David, Sreelakshmi, Irshad, etc., are the other major names in the cast.

In terms of the visual grammar, Jis Joy manages to create the mood he wants to set. Bahul Ramesh’s frames have these pale blue-tinted dark frames to mark the gloominess in Adhi’s life. The color temperature changes when Shani and Sharath are in focus. It is the scripting pattern that spoils the fun. The movie is struggling to find elements that will keep us hooked. There is a scene where the cunningness of the hero is boosted as a clap-worthy moment (if it was a theatrical release). But the scene falls flat because of the lack of intrigue.

Innale Vare isn’t really exploring its possibilities on the psychological side of its characters. The whole movie feels like a vaguely written first draft of an interesting thriller with usual and impractical elements. You might sit through this thriller. But there isn’t a takeaway here for the viewer.