On the eve of Lalettan's birthday, Aashirvad Cinemas decided to give his fans a treat in the form of Jeethu Joseph's "12th Man". It goes without saying that the expectations were pretty high after all it featured the hit combo & inevitably created hopes that their latest venture was also crafted in the mold of "Drishyam". Well it certainly belonged to the mystery thriller genre that was executed in a format that is rather unique to our industry. Anyway it was released on the Disney+ Hotstar platform & it turned out to be a decent thriller.
A group of 11 friends including their partners decide to celebrate the bachelor party of their last unmarried buddy at a hillside resort. Despite the interruptions from an inebriated guest in the resort, the gang seemingly had a jolly time until they decide to play a game to test the transparency in their relationships. This led to the opening of a can of worms which culminated with the death of one of their friends. At this juncture, DySP Chandrashekhar (Lalettan) who happened to be the irritating guest early on; steps in to unravel the mystery at the behest of the gang. So was it a suicide or murder & what led to it???
In one of the promotional chat shows, Jeethu mentioned that as opposed to majority of his directorial ventures; the plot is based on a story by Sunir Ketarpal & the screenplay is penned by K. R Krishna Kumar. The former was the producer of Jeethu's "The Body" apart from other movies. (SPOILER ALERT)Well the story as such isn't unique as it is adapted from Paolo Genovese's "Perfect Strangers" blended with Agatha Christie's Poirot series like "Murder on the Orient Express" etc. (ALERT ENDS). To be frank, I certainly liked the manner in which Jeethu had executed the plot as it was certainly engaging for significant parts with the finger of suspicion being pointed at different characters with each passing segment. But where it faltered was when it came to tying it up in a crisper manner as it stretched it to 163 minutes rather than keep it to 1.5 h or so. In the process, by the time the final reveal is made, it failed to evoke any kind of thrill & felt rather underwhelming.
At the same time, kudos to the technical team as they were pretty impressive especially Vinayak's editing skills where the transition between the past & present were made seamlessly. Satheesh Kurup deserves praise for his cinematography while Anil Johnson's music played in the credits gelled well with the mood of the story. On the performance front, the role barely challenged Lalettan & he was fine in the latter half though as the drunkard it kinda felt odd. Coming to the rest of the cast, Chandunath, Saiju Kurup & Sshivada were the best among the lot while the others were ok.
Verdict: It's a type of movie that is likely to garner mixed reactions as it does have its highs & lows. As far as I am concerned, it certainly keeps the audience engaged but the inability to keep the plot crisp does hamper the thrill & to add to that, the final reveal was way too underwhelming to justify the length. However, it is still worth a one time watch!!!
Rating: 2.75/5
Regards...Ben
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