‘Unmadham’ movie review: Shahi Kabir’s promising meta-narrative loses steam while juggling genres
The film 'Unmadham', directed by Shahi Kabir, is reviewed as a promising but uneven meta-narrative that struggles to balance crime, psychological drama, and supernatural elements. While Kunchacko Boban’s performance is praised, the script is criticized for relying on convenient plot devices.
Why it matters
This review provides cultural context for the evolving trends in Malayalam cinema, specifically the rise of police-officer-turned-filmmakers.
One can sense self-indulgence in the air when a police officer-turned-successful screenwriter writes a film about a policeman struggling to enter the film industry as a scriptwriter, incorporating the uncommon tales that he encountered in service. Shahi Kabir , one of the early players in this peculiar phenomenon of police officers-turned-screenwriters that has swept Malayalam cinema, does not serve a straight-up procedural this time around in Unmadham .
Parts of the story unfold in Shelly’s (Kunchacko Boban) mind. His long leaves from work and erratic behaviour have made life frustrating for his wife Soumya (Lijomol Jose). Constantly on the lookout for interesting story threads, he lands one when he comes across an old case file with a superstition attached.
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