An Indian serial killer

Por Thozhil (2023)

Director: Vignesh Raja

https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/tamil/por-
thozhil-trailer-sarath-kumar-ashok-selvan-starrer-
action-packed-gripping-thriller-8637264/

Thanks to SD for recommending this. SD is a childhood friend with a photographic memory for anything Bollywood when Bollywood was simply known as Hindi cinema. Back in school, during recess, he would attract an audience of friends who would listen as he belted out old Hindi songs and provided detailed backgrounds on the film's actors, music composers, release dates, and even the studios that produced the movies. Even now, he can still rattle off the same information after all these years. However, his interest came to a grinding halt in the 1980s when he felt that Bollywood had lost its charm. These days, SD is into Tamil and Malayalam cinema, which, he claims, are more interesting in storytelling.

 

This is a Tamil film that faithfully adheres to its intended genre. It is meant to be a thriller about a serial killer, and it remains true to its premise. It is not your usual Kollywood fare. There is romance, but it is barely developed. The songs are kept in the background, and there are certainly no item songs.

 

The film narrates the story of a series of murders involving young women who are killed similarly, with their hands tied back and their throats slit with a sharp object. After the local police struggle to make any progress, Logathan, a grumpy senior police officer, is called in to solve the case. A rookie officer, fresh out of the Police Academy with top marks, Prakash, is assigned as his deputy.

 

This sparks a little drama between the senior officer, who believes the young officers are worthless, and the newbie, who endeavours to impress his superior with his theoretical knowledge. The story unfolds slowly, with a solid build-up, before the potential killer is suddenly revealed to the audience. Sarath Babu, the darling of 1980s Tamil cinema, made his final appearance as a serial killer before passing away in the same year the movie was released. But wait for the twist at the end, hinting at a possible sequel.

 

Good show, 4.3/5.

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The problem with twins...

Thadam (தடம், Track, Tamil; 2019)

One often wonders about the fascination of Indian movies with identical twins and the commotion, confusion and melodrama that the swapping of roles brings to the screen. Well, it does not only happen on the silver screen. Living up to the adage that 'life is a stage and we are all actors', art mimics only what takes place in life. In the police archives, one can find many of such shenanigans created by such identical twins. Occasionally, the legal system gets confused. Sometimes the perpetrators get away scot-free. 

This 2019 police procedural Tamil drama highlights such one case. For the records, this story is based on an actual crime in Malaysia, with a little spicing up using artistic liberty.  

In the original case in 2003, a suspect abandoned his car at a police roadblock and scooted off on foot. The police gave chase. The vehicle's trunk was later shown to have held one of the police's most prominent drug haul. The police caught up with the suspect at an apartment. Upon dashing into the apartment, they found two individuals fitting the description of the man they were chasing. They saw a pair of twins and arrested both of them.

The investigation team was at tenterhooks trying to pick out the real culprit. Even though one of the twins was bespectacled, the suspect was not donning glasses at the time of the chase. As they were both using the same car, both men's fingerprints were found in the vehicle. As we know, even though the DNA make-up is the same in identical twins, their fingerprints differ as it is influenced by intrauterine conditions. 

The prosecution team put two brothers on the stand with the charge. The case was, however, dismissed by the presiding judge. Two persons cannot be charged with a crime done by one person, but Forensics could not identify the real McCoy.

'Thadam' is based on the above. To give two over hours' screentime and the ticket's worth, the filmmakers had to drag the storyline to make it a wholesome watch for the whole family. There are love interests, fractured families, feuding parents, a mother with gambling problems, murder and a convoluted storyline to top it all. 

A murder is recorded, and the police investigation identifies a man in a picture snapped by a bystander. The distribution of the image to various police stations revealed two identical twins. The more police look into the suspects, the more either of them could be the murderer. To top it all, the police chief has a personal vendetta against one of them. With a sympathetic cop in the picture who wants to do the right thing and sidekicks who create dry humour, this movie is worth the while.

The postscript credits tell of similar unsolved cases around the whole involving confusion created by identical twins. In 2009 Germany, Husran and Abbas were accused of a multi-million dollar jewellery heist; in 2016, in England, where Patrick and James Hennessy possessed deadly weapons, and 1999 saw Jerome and Tyrone Cooper as serial rapes. All of them escaped conviction.

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Turn hunters to the hunted.

Nayattu (Malayalam, The Hunt; 2021)

That is how the world is today. One day you are doing all the dirty job, not because you like to do it but because you are part of the system. It is not within your capacity to change the status quo but just follow through as you have been doing all along. You know that the battle is unwinnable. You oblige as there are down lines who depend on you. Your leg is so deeply entrenched in the muck there is only one way to go, to get dirty. 

You perfected the system. You wanted it to work for you to serve your masters. It only strikes you to realise what a monster that you have created when the system is used against you when your masters are angered with your actions. 

Most Indian movies highlight police brutality and try to put the police personnel in poor light whilst the laypeople go around with their heart on their sleeves to prove their innocence. In Nayattu, the role is somewhat reversed. 

A sub-inspector and two of his subordinates are accused of drunk driving and killing a motorcyclist. The trouble is that the dead is a goon who works for the local politician, and the three of them were not driving. The driver, upon realising whom he had knocked, fled the scene. Because the local elections are days away and the victim is from the backward caste from which the local politician relies on votes, there is a dire need to apprehend the perpetrators before balloting day. The incumbent leader wants to show the public he has the gravitas to put things in order.

The accused have no chance to prove their innocence. Under the instruction of politicians who hold the strings of administration, their seniors deceptively decide to put an all-points bulletin on them. The accused are hot on their wheels, trying to disappear at least until the elections are over. 

Everybody agrees that for a democratic society to function optimally, there must be the separation of powers between the legislative (law-making body), executive (puts the law into operation) and Judiciary (interprets the law and settle disputes) arms of administration. This division of powers is essential to ensure checks and balances. No one man is yet to born is beyond reproach in carrying his duties without an error of omission or commission. Of late, we have seen how the Legislative part of the country tries to influence and control the other branches of power. And we know what devastation happened in the 1988 Malaysian Constitutional Crisis. We also can see how political leaders use and abuse the executive and judiciary arm of the country. The pandemic, the control over media and utilisation of cybertrooper facilitate them in their endeavours.  

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Who wants to bell the cat?

Line of Duty Seasons 5 and 6. (2019-2021)

Since writing about the TV series in 2017, two other series had been released. Continuing from the previous series, Anti Corruption No.12 (AC#12), continue in their endeavour to wipe out corruption in the police department. On the one hand, the police department wants to be seen as carrying out their duties above the board, without fear or favour and one-minded in seeking the truth to mete justice. At the same time, the department does not want to appear overtly corrupt but gives an image of having integrity. It is an interplay between maintaining the appearance and preserving integrity.

The funny thing about this whole exercise is that both arms of the regulators are from the same parent body. For any enforcement to function, it had to garner the trust of the general public. So how can it shoot itself in its foot and be able to run? But who would want an outsider to sieve through their household laundry and embarrass them of their soiled linen? No police officer worth his salt wants an independent body to go through his activities or shortcomings with a fine-tooth comb to point out their errors. 

With this balance in mind, the screenwriters of 'Line of Duty' managed to spin another two seasons with equal edge-of-the-street suspense at its predecessors. The AC#12 team races against the clock to pin down the mastermind behind the web of chicanery that goes on within the system.

All these hours of police procedural drama would naturally stir our curiosity to check our own backyard. With the constant bombardment of news of police corruption and death in police custody, it seems imperative that such an exercise is more important now than ever. The recent admission of the outgoing Inspector-General of Police of the unholy union between cops and underground elements is sufficient grounds to establish an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Committee (IPCMC).

There is no shame in admitting rots. The first step in correcting a broken system is the admission of failure. Many police precincts in the United States have turned themselves around after a series of misconduct. The New York Police Department has had undergone a series of scandals over the years but still functions with a check and balance system in place.

When everyone somewhat has his hand soiled with slime, how will he be the first to switch on the light? Nobody wants to leave their mark on the switchboard!

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Scepticism keeps us going!

Memories of Murder (2003)

We look at things around us, and we get awed. We observe, scrutinise, see a pattern, try to connect the dots and suddenly be cocksure about something. We brag and gloat that we have cracked it like we had unveiled the secrets of the Universe. Then it would hit you right smack in your face - that something did not turn out as we thought it would. We are shocked. We deny it. Cognitive dissonance would set in. Our ego would not accept our failure. We would blame error in experimentation, that somebody had slept on the job, that it just cannot be.

What we do next may make or break our civilisation. We can just deny that the whole thing did not happen and move on with life, content with our prior knowledge. We can tell ourselves that we have learnt everything already and that there is nothing more to earn. Or be a sceptic and retrace our every step and try to outline where and when and how things can go wrong. The former is the easy way out that maintains status quo and maintains the hierarchy while the latter is more problematic. Paradoxically, scepticism, rethinking and re-questioning are the very qualities that keep our civilisation propelling forward. Lose that, and we will be extinct.

The Koreans have leapt forward in many fields, science, technology, medicine, economy and of course the art form. Besides providing Psy, boy bands and soap dramas to the world, the film industry is a force to reckon. This film is praised for its storyline, particularly the climax. It is based on the series of unresolved murders that happened in South Korea between 1986 and 1991. It narrates the escapades of two regular detectives and a newly transferred one from the big city, in 1985, who desperately try to solve three murders involving young girls. They see a pattern in the crimes; the victims are females, all wear red, that the event happens on a rainy day and is preceded by a particular song requested on the radio. They come so close to solving the case until a vital clue comes against their suspicion. It happens repeatedly until they had to close the case.

How the man look? Just ordinary!

18 years later, after they had left the service and lead their own lives, the memories of this unsolved murder stay in their mind. The main character, as he is passing through the crime scene one day, decides to stop to have a look. As he is scrutinising the area and the avalanche of recollection about the death come pouring in, a young passerby asks him about his activity. He tells her that he is looking at something that he was working on many years previously. The bewildered girl replies that another man was doing the same thing just a few days before that. The puzzled ex-detective asks her to describe the man. The answers that she gives only brought him back to the memory his detective days, "Oh, just an ordinary-looking man!"

The detective must be telling himself,  anyone can commit murder. He does not have a different identifying look. Evil resides in all of us. When our shields are down when the time is ripe and at the spur of the moment, humanity fails, and darkness prevails.

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