Ikk Movie Review: Interesting premise doesn't translate into an engaging watch

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious," said Albert Einstein. Cinema has always embraced the unknown in creating newer worlds. In the 2019 film Jiivi, writer Babu Tamizh weaved a compelling story around an imaginative, mysterious theory called the Triangular Fate (Mukkona Vidhi). There, the narration was so clearly and tightly woven that it aided itself in explaining its intricate concepts. With Ikk, which marks the writer's direction debut, there is a similar attempt to use a mysterious, never-before explored concept. Unfortunately, Ikk is no Jiivi.

Director: Babu Tamizh

Cast: Yogesh, Guru Somasundaram, Anicka Vikhraman, Aadukalam Naren

Ikk has a rather intriguing start. Vasanth Chandrasekhar (Yogesh), a top footballer, is thrown off guard after a child mascot refuses to let his hand go after the player line-up ahead of a match. This isn't an endearing moment as this distraction leads to a dangerous injury. Vasanth is admitted to a hospital and his father sends a man named Gnana Prakasam (Guru Somasundaram) to take care of him. In an unexpected turn, Vasanth witnesses a murder through his hospital room window, but when Police Inspector Kanagavel Rajan (Aadukalam Naren), arrives at the sign of crime, there are no signs of any murder. Is Vasanth losing his mind? How does this affect his relationship with his wife Dhanya (Anicka Vikraman)? Who is this mysterious Gnana Prakasam? A lot of these questions are answered as the mystery-thriller unravels.

The first thing that might irk one about Ikk is the underwhelming performances of the lead actors. Yogesh tries his best to fit the part but you never really see him as the character. The stock expressions never allow you to get behind his purpose even if his character arc compels you to. Similarly, Guru Somasundaram looks out of place, and even the bits and pieces of what we know about the character come only in the later stages of the film. There is an absolute lack of coherence in how Ikk progresses. For example, when Vasanth gets disturbed by the bizarre events that happen to him, we too are left confused majorly because of the hurried pacing of these scenes. The incoherence gets worse in the later parts of the film, which are pivotal in exposing the final reveals.

Speaking of the final reveals, it doesn't help the film if it keeps insisting on keeping us in dark till the end, only to reveal ideas that aren't conveyed properly. Similarly, there is an issue with how red herrings are placed. Handling red herrings are tough because sometimes it might put off an audience who might see it as cheating or as superfluous. Some dialogues seem to justify the reasoning behind these subversions but, again, they don't land well due to improper staging and pacing. Some ideas, which do need reasoning, seem to have been left to the audience to understand. For example, there is a brilliant undercurrent metaphor that connects Gnana Prakasam with Lord Krishna, but the film doesn't delve into it at all. Also, we never know why Kanagavel buys everything that Vasanth says even after he realises that the latter is struggling with things that don't really make sense for a common man.  

To make matters worse, there are two songs in the film, and it is one too many for a film that needed better and tighter writing. Anyway, Ikk didn't need a romantic subplot, especially since some scenes are plain excruciating. Writing a story with an unreliable narrator isn't an easy feat, but it is effective only when it translates into an engaging watch. If only Ikk had turned into one, it would have been as unique as the title.