When Mohanlal and Jeethu Joseph collaborated for a thriller after the success of Drishyam and its sequel, anticipation was to be expected. The result this time is 12 Man– a Kenneth Branagh's Murder on the Orient Express meets Paolo Genovese's Perfetti Sconosciuti (‘Perfect Strangers’) thriller.
A group of friends–five married couples and one single woman– go to a resort to celebrate their friend’s upcoming wedding. The film begins with the news that Zakariah (Unni Mukundan) and his wife Annie (Priyanka Nair) are expecting a child. We later find out that Sam (Rahul Madhav) is involved in a shady business deal.
Sam exiting the dinner table to take a call eventually results in a conversation about the friends keeping secrets from each other– some believe it’s natural, others don’t. The group then plays a ‘game’ wherein every person places their phone on the table and every call must be played out and every text must be read aloud.
What follows is everyone’s dirty laundry being aired out and the night ends with a death– Mathew’s (Saiju Kurup) wife Shiny (Anusree) is found dead off the side of a cliff. Everyone's a suspect and handling the investigation? Mohanlal as the suspended cop Chandrasekhar who earlier met the group as a stranger who kept harassing them.
Chandrashekhar, for his investigation, uses the same ‘game’ the group was playing but with a few edits in the rules.
The game, while seemingly strange when it happens on the dinner table, lends an interesting aspect to the murder investigation trope.
12th Man is based on a story by Sunir Kheterpal with the screenplay credited to KR Krishnakumar. The most commendable is editor VS Vinayak’s use of transitions and imagery to go from past to present– something that can be confusing with multiple characters and arcs.
The film takes its time to introduce every character and makes an honest effort to clarify what everyone’s relationship is to each other, as is expected from a Joseph film. But the conversations the friends have with each other are so superficial and juvenile that it might become difficult for a viewer to indulge in the idea that they’ve known each other for years.
Mohanlal plays his role with ease and he ably switches between the drunk and the efficient detective though he seems more comfortable with the latter. The background score takes away from the suspense, a great disservice, and it seems almost comical in places.
Leona Lishoy as Fida, Priyanka as Annie, Unni Mukundan as Zakariah all give memorable performances.
Despite all the time it spends on each character, they remain woefully unidimensional, a shame since it’s an able cast and would’ve carried a more complex screenplay well.
The connection of Shiny’s behaviour to mental illness is unnecessary and seems like a convenient plot point we should’ve left behind years ago.
The film is no Drishyam and could’ve been a much shorter film. It lags in the beginning, picks up in the middle, and ends on a lackluster note owing mostly to how long it takes to reach a conclusion.
12th Man is streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.
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