Review by Idiyan Chandhu | Peter Hein’s performance is not enough to cover up the flaws of this mediocre film

The success of something like RDX may have been the reason director Sreejith Vijayan and actor Vishnu Unnikrishnan decided to make something like Idiyan Chandhu. But it seems that neither of them has really figured out the reason why RDX worked. As an idea, RDX is a very basic revenge story. But what made that film a massive hit was the placement and execution of certain events that made audiences, even those who hate watching violence, root for the heroes. The problem with Idiyan Chandhu is that he knows the points at which the action needs to happen, but he just doesn’t know how to get to those points.

Chandhu, our hero, had a very toxic childhood, he saw his father mistreating his mother and later, his father was murdered by a group of goons. When many people instigated Chandhu when he did not react in certain situations, it gave rise to this version of Chandhu who was extremely violent. But after a point, violence becomes a headache for the family and what we see is that phase in Chandhu’s life where he decides to stay away from any kind of violence to fulfill the promise he made to his mother.

This isn’t a format we haven’t seen in movies. It’s just a slightly reworked version of the Story of Violence model. The audience is well aware of the fact that at one point, our hero will lose control and become the beast that he is. But, just like RDX managed to get the audience to root for the action, here, the effort isn’t there on the writing level. Generic story beats move things along, and even the fighting feels rather slow. The only fight sequence that felt like a Peter Hein fight sequence, because of the detailing that can be seen in it, was the one right after the interval with Biju Sopanam and Vishnu Unnikrishnan. The low-budget final fight, similar to Avengers Endgame, is hastily placed and just fails to create an adrenaline rush around it.

Going by the poster and title, it may seem like the loudest character Vishnu Unnikrishnan has ever played, but it is actually one of the calmest and least dialogue-driven characters for the actor. In most of the scenes, the actor has a restrained body language. The most important aspect is his approach to pulling off action sequences and frankly, it just gives you a feeling of being okay. Lenaa, with that weird-looking wig, plays the role of Vishnu Unnikrishnan’s mother. Lalu Alex, who has a history of playing the cool dad in Malay cinema, plays the role of a cool dad (a priest) who, as the school principal, announces over the microphone that the bullies need to be beaten up.

Jayashree Shivadas is the female lead, along with Vidhya Vijayakumar as the happy-go-lucky best friend. The tone of Vidhya’s performance is so obviously loud and comical that it seems like an annoying addition. And that’s a problem considering the relevance of her character in the film. Biju Sopanam manages to show off his swagger in that action scene. Chandu Salimkumar’s Tamil dialect is somewhat odd even though his body language and screen presence are appreciable. Gayathri Arun, Sminu Sijo, Johny Antony, Kichu Tellus, etc., are the other names in the cast.

Sreejith Vijayan, who had already made Kuttanadan Marppappa and Margam Kali, is attempting to make a genuine action film. Right from the first sequence, what we see are fights. But the script doesn’t try anything different, and some of the humour featuring Johny Antony, Ramesh Pisharody, etc., seemed like filler sequences that stood out and didn’t really contribute to the main idea. Even when that revealing incident happens in the last quarter of the film, we don’t get emotionally involved, because it is actually preceded by a meaningless comedy sequence. The focus on presenting it as an action film has made the script very ordinary. Maybe they thought that the final fight at the school would stun the viewers and they won’t complain about the cliché-filled script. But sadly, Peter Hein is unable to make that chaotic fight sequence charismatic.

Just when one thinks the film is over, like many other films in the recent past, we see the introduction of the real “villain,” who announces “Idi Thudarum.” It is interesting to see how the filmmakers lose their wits in post-production and become extremely delusional about what they have done.