Karam Movie Review: Vineeth Sreenivasan flounders in his return to thrillers

Karam Movie Review: Vineeth Sreenivasan, a self-confessed fan of 'man on a mission' films like Taken and John Wick, attempted it first in Thira, where he put together a resolute middle-aged woman and a spirited youngster to fight a common enemy. Years later, as he revisits the thriller space with Karam, Vineeth once again relies on the same idea—just that the protagonist here is an ex-army man. It is about Dev Mahendran (Noble Babu Thomas), who, along with his wife and child, arrives at a foreign country for work, only to be ensnared in a crisis that threatens their safety. Although we have seen countless films and shows operating on similar lines, it's still an effective setup for racy actioners. However, in Karam, the makers fail to add any spice to an almost stale idea, resulting in a bland, unimaginative film that proves to be a mediocre version of several superior films in the genre.

Director: Vineeth Sreenivasan
Cast: Noble Babu Thomas, Audrey Miriam Henest, Reshma Sebastian, Kalabhavan Shajohn, Ivan Vukomanović

Dev is your typical angry man with commitment issues, which in turn stems from his unresolved daddy issues. To underscore the troubled father-son dynamic, we are presented with a dining scene at the beginning, where characters speak as if conveying information to us, rather than as actual people who have known each other for a long time. It is exposition disguised as dialogue. The dramatic and artificial dialogues don't help either.

After opening high with an episode from Dev's army life, intended to accentuate his bravado and impulsiveness, the film makes us wait for a while before it can really take off. It happens only after they reach this fictional town called Lenarco, where Dev clashes with an illegal trafficking ring. At this point, one can't be blamed for wondering if Karam is a spiritual sequel to Thira. It seems like Vineeth also wanted to invoke the Thira nostalgia very early by using the lyrics 'Theerathe Neelunnitha' in the title song. If you remember, Thira's theme song begins with the lyrics 'Theerathe Neelunne'. But Karam neither moves nor thrills with the same intensity as Thira.

We're 'told' that Dev is pitted against a mighty criminal syndicate, backed by the local police and politicians. But the menace never feels tangible. What does this notorious group do? Run a sex club with 5-6 young women. Maybe that's just a cover-up for their other shady activities, which involve organ trafficking, but their operations lack the scale and intimidation the script insists upon. Even the repeated graphic visuals of sexual assaults and murders are curiously ineffective in creating dread.

The group is headed by André, played by former Kerala Blasters football coach Ivan Vukomanović, fondly called Aashan by Malayalis. It was a much-hyped casting, but ends up being a shabbily sketched character, who appears every now and then to randomly down frail victims. While Ivan does carry the intensity, the lack of a strong personality and character arc takes the sheen away.

What Karam does get right are its action beats, with cinematographer Jomon T John capturing the fights in seamless, tight frames. Performed expertly by Noble and Co, the stunts also lend a raw and unchoreographed feel. The fact that Dev is a military man armed with combat training grounds these riveting action sequences and makes them more convincing. While he excels in the fight portions, Noble falls short of exuding the commanding screen presence of a heroic saviour. Among the other actors, Audrey Miriam Henest, who plays Sara, is a promising talent as she effectively internalises the character's despair and trauma. Vineeth also tries to subvert the male saviour trope, albeit tokenistically, by giving her a moment of glory in the end.

That said, Vineeth is not always sure about finding the right balance in treatment. While the occasional dry humour works, the realistic grit of its combat sequences is undercut by jarring detours into mass-movie theatrics. Scenes like Kalabhavan Shajohn's Lucifer-style 'vaada' or Manoj K Jahan's 'mundu madakki kuthu' or the scene at the minister's office appear to be straight out of larger-than-life mass flicks. Noble also gets a good dose of slo-mo shots to highlight his badassery, but the performance still lacks the charisma it demands.

Take away the Lenarco-connect, and this is a story that could have been placed anywhere locally. Kochi, Bangalore, Mumbai... But the USP of this film is its milieu, a setting largely unfamiliar to the Malayali audience. However, functional writing hardly matches the ambitions. The screenplay lacks the intelligence and inventiveness that films of this genre usually demand. Instead, what remains is an overwhelming sense of familiarity. The lackadaisical writing that fails to create any sense of urgency and raciness reduces what should have been a high-stakes thriller into something completely predictable. A technically solid film of this quality clearly deserved better.