A 6 am first-day-first-show (that actually began sharp at 6 am) for a princely sum of Rs 250 for a sofa seat at a small-time mall in Kerala – that alone should have been reason enough for cheer considering the thousands I usually shell out for movie outings in Bengaluru. But then, it was also to check out what Malayalam filmmaker Jithu Madhavan had cooked for his Tamil movie debut, armed with a hero like Suriya and Naslen taking on the villain’s role. Naslen had, apparently, chosen this – Scene – over films that would have seen him as the loveable underdog/boy-next-door character. I wasn’t completely sold on Jithu hitherto, though. Romancham was a fairly decent watch, but Aavesham, me thinks, managed to do well solely because of Fahadh Faasil’s eccentricities as Rangan (and maybe even Sajin Gopu’s Ambaan).
And yet, there was excitement and anticipation surrounding Scene, which, didn’t take long to fizzle away. And no, I did not know about the film’s major plot point about Suriya’s character prior to watching the film. Jithu’s Scene revolves around an efficient cop DSP Inbaraj, who’s dealing with ocular degradation or progressive vision loss. When we are introduced to him, the extent of his vision loss is established as 90% already. He’d been managing for the longest time by getting subordinates to do all the paperwork on his cases and read all related information out to him. But once the cat’s out of the bag, the resignation that his boss had hitherto refused to accept, is quickly processed.
Trouble is that all of this played out just as doubts emerge if Inbaraj got the right man behind bars in the ‘perfume murder case’ or if a copycat was on the loose. Determined to get to the bottom of this, Inbaraj hires an assistant, Maya (Nazriya), to help him navigate life with this condition, as she becomes his eyes. Strangely enough, Inbaraj, who’d been managing himself fairly well until then, including an outing to the police station to tender his resignation, is all at sea once she arrives. He fumbles and stumbles along as Jithu establishes their ‘working relationship’. His sudden level of dependency on her throws out any adjustments he had supposedly figured out earlier.
Inbaraj’s boss at the crime branch division is veteran actor Lal, who is reduced to a joker. Apparently, you need a bungling dimwit cop at the top who will put up with any nonsense thrown at him by the leading man and laugh it off because of the latter’s efficiency. This also means that he does not know what to do when a criminal he’s interrogating decides to literally give him a golden shower. Like really? The chief of crime branch doused in a load of smelly prisoner pee is supposedly meant to evoke laughs, according to the makers of Scene.
My biggest grouse, though, is with the handling of Naslen as the contract killer Eeswaran, who was meant to be a cold and calculating sociopath. Calculating he is, for sure, but cold? Nah! I don’t think Naslen missed the memo on that; in fact, the overwhelming feeling is that his wings were deliberately clipped because Scene is, after all, a Suriya film. Wouldn’t be right if all the Deepavali releases this year have the antagonists walking away with the bouquets. I get that the focus of the crime comedy was on keeping the proceedings light-hearted, but I can’t shake the feeling that Eeswaran could have been so much more.
Scene was also much talked about as Nazriya’s return to Tamil cinema after more than a decade. Yes, Maya is a woman capable of holding her own against a bunch of goons, although not Eeswaran. But for a young woman forced to fight against all odds given her medical history, it takes her little to no time to fall for her boss and unleash the cutesy act that’s been a Nazriya staple since the start of her career. It’s what fans want, will be the argument in favour of this characterisation; I disagree. It’s also why I prefer Nazriya in Sookshmadarshini than Scene. Also, why is a romantic angle important? I don’t want to get into the investigation, because that bit is laughable at best.
As for Suriya, well, I don’t think I’ve seen the man not wearing high-waist trousers and shoes with heel lifts to give him the illusion of some extra inches. Jithu’s choice to kit him out in shorts and tees was an interesting decision and worked for the character. It helps that Suriya still looks dreamy. The trouble that I had with Inbaraj is that for the most part, he is stripped of whatever agency he had earlier. The loss of one sense, supposedly heightens the others, but Inbaraj’s offered no such glimmer of hope and development. He’d be at a complete loss without Maya.
And if all of this wasn’t bad enough, Sushin Shyam’s music also remained largely forgettable. And that, me thinks, is unpardonable. I walked out of the hall feeling rather underwhelmed and pinged a colleague who was reviewing it. “Thoroughly entertaining,” he chimed. So yeah, Scene’s one of those movies that will work for some and may not for others. It didn’t for me.
