Y

The new movie Y from director Sunil Ibrahim, who earlier made films like Chapters and Arikil Oral, is an impressive attempt on a minimalistic plot. If you analyze the whole plot of the film, there is nothing that we can say as a never before seen thing. It is the build up and the authenticity of that build up that makes this movie an engaging one. Clocking less than two hours of run time at no point you will feel that they are dragging a simple theme.

Too many characters are there and most of them are fresh faces. So pardon me for forgetting the names of characters. A young couple who is roaming in Trivandrum city gets bullied by a few boys. While a fight was happening between these two groups, the girl gets kidnapped and is taken to a nearby flat. Now the plot gets interesting because everyone knows the girl is there somewhere but they don’t know how to find her (due to certain practicalities). Y is actually showing us the series of events that happen in that place for around two hours in order to find that girl.

Like I said it’s not a mind blowing concept. A thriller with a typical structure gets narrated in a realistic refreshing way. Unlike the other two films of the director, the drama quotient here is very minimal. The acceptance towards realistic treatment gets utilized very effectively in this film. Even though everything is part of one single narrative, there is a subplot like feel to each of those episodes. I really liked the bonding of the goon and mistress. A little while in to the film we do tend to ask some practicality questions like why aren’t the police doing anything and the good thing is that Sunil Ibrahim uses one of his characters to raise that question. That way, they are trying to make the premise look sensible.

Alencier is probably the only prominent actor in this entire film among the numerous other actors. He was really good and he adds genuineness to that flawed character. In that scene where he converses with a police officer in mufti, his body language and reactions are just perfect. Jins Bhasker whom I remember seeing in Ayal Njanalla was good in the character offered to him. I was hoping Anand Manmadhan would get a role that would utilize his acting chops beyond the comedy. Rajagopalan who played the role of Salim was an unorthodox smart choice. Rahul as Benoy was very convincing. Dheeraj Denny handled the role of Arun neatly. Reshma paired opposite to Jins seems like a promising talent. The only character among the noticeable ones who looked slightly artificial was the one who played the role of the caretaker.

The reason why this film worked for me has a lot to do with the removal of filminess. From the initial ruffle between the boys and the couple to the way Salim handles the situation and also the approach of police, all these things had a raw approach which creates a curiosity in our head. Sunil Ibrahim is not trying to complicate it with narrative experiments. In fact this two hour long movie is showing something that happens over a span of two hours. The involvement of the people around the main characters doesn’t have any fakeness. Dialogues are rendered very naturally by the actors in an authentic slang. When it finally unveils the mystery, the feeling I had was not disappointment. The cinematography by Jayesh Mohan depicts the mood of the movie nicely. Cuts were neat. BGM was also nice.

Y is a convincing thriller with least commercial compromises. It is not a social preach on women safety. But subtly through its subplots, it is saying its politics clearly. It would have been a better movie if the convolution was more intricate.

Rating: 3/5