'I, Nobody' review: Prithviraj Sukumaran delivers one of his finest performances in a cleverly staged edge-of-the-seat thriller

I love it when an "ordinary" protagonist — the titular "nobody" — who, despite being plunged into a multitude of chaotic situations, reveals himself as a man with an immense reservoir of courage. Someone who strongly resists weakness under pressure, regardless of the intense humiliation and heavy burden he has to bear. And I love it when a film has well-timed pressure points that know when to make the protagonist bring out the heroic side in him. This film  — the third one by Nisam Basheer ("Rorschach", "Kettyolaanu Ente Malakha") — and its hero have got all their nuts and bolts in the right places, ready to come loose, and then go back in, at the appropriate time.

How do I talk about a film that, right from the opening minutes, is laden with spoilers? So, I'll attempt to give a sense of what transpires in the film without telling you what it is. To start off, it's safe to say that Nisam Basheer and writer Sameer Abdul deliver another winner with their second collaboration after "Rorschach", a film that's diametrically opposite of "I, Nobody". The latter, starring Prithviraj Sukumaran and Parvathy Thiruvothu, is a family-friendly feature that has the behaviour of a mass entertainer and a grounded character drama at the same time, while also being an edge-of-the-seat thriller that doesn't waste any time getting to its business. It has dual personalities and touches upon several genres and sub-genres. By that, I don't imply it ventures into Christopher Nolan and M. Night Shyamalan territory.

Getting audiences hooked in the opening minutes has become a challenge these days, but "I, Nobody" knows how. And is there a more attention-grabbing image than — I'm not spoiling anything here — a man with a gun walking into a bank? I'm going to stop right there, because what happens after is basically Guy Ritchie territory. The economical, no-nonsense structure of the screenplay reminded me of last month's Netflix release "I Will Find You" in that you become completely invested in the lead character's journey, considering what happens in the first episode. And just like the hero in that 8-episode series, Prithviraj's 'Rajeevan' is an ordinary guy with decent fighting skills.

After a point, I was looking at "I, Nobody" as though all these events were happening to me. What would I have done had I been in Rajeevan's place? The same thing he does, but then I doing that would make sense only if I looked like Prithviraj, because the film traverses events that seem implausible in the real world — no, not the Rajamouli gravity-defying variety, mind you — but ones grounded in basic human emotions.

Simply put, "I, Nobody" is an ordinary-man-in-extraordinary-circumstances story told in a way we have not seen before. It's the "angry young man" film where the anger is generated in the right places without going overboard. Prithviraj imbues Rajeevan with the right measure of restraint and heroic energy whenever the situation demands it. It's one of the actor's finest roles. I would even go so far as to compare with his brother Indrajith Sukumaran's much-acclaimed 'Vattu Jayan' character from "Left Right Left". By that, I don't mean that they share the same background — far from it — but they both have enough balls to take on the entire world when they are unwittingly thrust into situations that are beyond their control. It’s also a character that carries shades of Michael Douglas’s character in the 1993 thriller “Falling Down”. Oh, and he is also Gary Cooper in the classic western "High Noon".

All these protagonists live in a world — OUR world — where everyone is trying to benefit from somebody else. Media, police, watchmen, wives, children… A world where everyone would do something morally unacceptable if law and order operations were suspended for a day. I knew this movie would have something special in store the minute they show something... unexpected... happening during an early kidnapping. I knew this "ordinary" man would have more surprises up his sleeve. And the film doesn't bother to explain why he is the way he is. It simply tracks a progression of crazy events that all started with a simple action and a random coincidence, blowing up in a way that begins attracting national attention.

Also commendable is Parvathy as his wife, Meera, who shares a... complicated... history with her husband; the primary source for the opening scene’s “thriller” situation. She is the woman who tries to hold it all together in the storm that gathers intensity with each passing minute. The two little girls cast as their daughters rise to the occasion, too. They bring the necessary amount of humour in the right places — that is, when Rajeevan himself isn't finding everything that's happening around him absurd already. There's not a single flawed performance here.

"I, Nobody" also benefits from having a superlative technical team, starting with cinematographer Dinesh Purushothaman ("Maharaja"), whose impressive talents are demonstrated in at least two sequences — a superbly choreographed three-way lift fight; a past-present transition inside an SUV where one character is asked to recall something important. The choice of music, too, courtesy of Jakes Bejoy, is worthy of mention — to go with non-Malayalam lyrics and tunes for the most part is a breath of fresh air.  

Film: I, Nobody
Director: Nisam Basheer
Cast: Prithviraj Sukumaran, Parvathy Thiruvothu, Hakim Shahjahan, Ashokan, Shankar Ramakrishnan, Nishanth Sagar
Rating: 4.5/5