Secret Review | SN Swamy’s thriller Synchronicity is an outdated atrocity

SN Swamy is a name that many Malaysians know, mainly because of the hugely successful CBI franchise. He has been a screenwriter for a long time and the new film Secret is his first foray into directing. Secret starts off as a sort of exploration of omens, but halfway through it loses its thriller focus and what you get is a confusing package of cringe-worthy goodness and a lot of newspaper clippings about people who had good luck thanks to these good omens.

Midhun, a medical representative, goes to Tamilnadu to attend his friend’s wedding and during that visit, his friend, the prince, forces him to take a Nadi astrology test. The astrologer tells Midhun that there is no marriage written in his future and that puts Midhun in a difficult situation as he is already engaged and the wedding date is very close. How Midhun and his friends deal with this situation is what we get to see in SN Swamy’s Secret.

A few years ago, Balachandra Menon had tried his hand at directing films that featured the younger generation. There was a glaring lack of connect in the way the director studied that generation, and in almost all such films, I felt like shouting at the screen that we don’t function like that. Something very similar can be said about SN Swamy’s The Secret. Not only does it struggle to understand the wave of the generation, but there are certain outdated cinematic tropes that it still uses. The entire part leading up to Midhun’s wedding is just terrible to watch. When Renjith’s character comes into the picture, talking about the science of omens and coincidences, I was hoping to see some reason why someone would have felt potential in this topic. But sadly, the “spreading kindness”, “believing in yourself” and “saving lives” kind of motivational spirituality was what was in store for the audience.

Dhyan Sreenivasan plays the role of Midhun in this film, and it is a generic performance that has nothing to remember. Aparna Das plays the role of Ameya, Midhun’s close friend. It was not a demanding character. The counter dialogue that her character says, when Midhun wakes up from a nightmare during the road trip, gave me that much-needed dose of unintentional comedy. Jacob Gregory plays the role of Prince and I was really hoping to see a flashback snippet showing Prince giving his kidney to any of the friends because there was no other reason for such a negative guy to be in any friend circle. Ranjith played the role of a cultured man, similar to how he speaks during IFFK, but with less arrogance. Ardra Mohan is paired opposite Dhyan in this film. Though the character is pivotal to the plot, there is hardly anything there for her to play.

The second law of thermodynamics, entropy, synchronicity, etc., are the elements that have motivated SN Swamy to make a film out of them. But for a film to work, a strong and exciting story is needed that uses these ingredients effectively. SPOILER ALERT! When the character played by Ranjith suggests this idea of ​​saving three lives to bargain for one life, I was hoping that the film would not take that trajectory. But what you end up getting is an amplified version of Dhyan Sreenivasan doing good stuff on the level of “Nanmayulla Lokame,” and it is simply an unbearable experience. It is very sad to see someone like SN Swamy using ideas that cannot even compete with amateur short films.

Touted as a sort of supernatural suspense thriller, Secret ends up being a motivational and preachy film about confidence when coincidences get you down. There is a guilty humour in watching films about the younger generation written by veteran writers who have no clue about their thought processes and lingo. The film Secret is one of those bland creations worthy of ridicule.