‘Antakshari’ movie review: A musical game with a serial killer that rather falls flat

Probabilities of one coming throughout a police officer who would make suspects play a recreation of Antakshari are virtually as nil as discovering a psycho killer who would make his sufferer play the musical recreation. In Antakshari, we get each.

However then, initially, we’re taken in by the novelty and the wit in Circle Inspector Das’ (Saiju Kurup) interactions with suspects, that are all constructed round Antakshari, the sport that includes singing a track beginning with the final letter of the one sung by the earlier participant.

The enjoyable doesn’t final although. Quickly, Das will get an nameless name difficult him to play the identical recreation, failing which his daughter’s life could be in peril. He refuses and his daughter comes near loss of life by the hands of a masked man with a track on his lips. Das and a younger officer (Sudhi Koppa) start an investigation into previous instances the place the killer used related strategies to strangle victims.

The trail to the killer is strewn with so many pink herrings and parallel tracks that the scriptwriter even forgets to deliver closure to a few of these ultimately. There may be the physician (Kannan Nayar) on the clinic the place Das’ spouse Chitra (Priyanka Nair) works. He’s a pervert and has issues mendacity round in his workplace that would join him to the crimes, but we clearly know that that is simply an try at deceptive us, by the half-hearted method by which these sequences are written and staged. The identical is the case with the half involving an area politician (Vijay Babu), who can be portrayed as a doable suspect.

Aspect story

One other diversion comes within the type of a facet story involving a budding musician, his abusive step-father and a mysterious woman subsequent door. Later within the movie, an try is made to attach this story to the central narrative, nevertheless it seems contrived. What works for the movie for a very good half is the truth that it manages to maintain the suspense alive, however the gradual and efficient build-up appears wasted ultimately, going by the twisted and unconvincing conclusion it arrives at.

It would appear to be a very good factor when psychological well being turns into a subject of dialogue, however the killer’s random fixations that result in a collection of murders appear too far-fetched to shock us. Caste discrimination can be a side that is available in at a number of locations, in a narrative from the previous, and inside the police pressure.

The novelty think about Antakshari wears off shortly, even because the unconvincing climax takes the sheen off the cautious build-up.

Antakshari is at present streaming on SonyLIV