Parallels can be drawn to Suriya, the actor, and Inbaraj, the character he plays in Jithu Madhavan's “Scene”. The actor has already proven himself fairly capable of embodying personalities that don't necessarily cater to the demands of a hero-worship crowd, while also demonstrating, time and again, that he can do that as well, provided he is in the hands of a director who can bring out the best in him. The character, Inbaraj, on the other hand, once seen as a mass hero-like investigator, still finds it difficult to come to terms with the fact that he is no longer the same guy, after learning that he is... turning blind.
So, yeah, reports that the actor playing a blind character have turned out to be true. The actor has accepted the responsibility of playing him, but what about his die-hard fans? Can they bear seeing their hero in this avatar? I imagine some of them will, but navigating “Scene” should be tricky for many. It was for me, but not for the above reasons.
Writer-director Jithu Madhavan is basically the Malayalam equivalent of Nelson Dilipkumar in that they both share a love for oddball characters faced with the most extraordinary situations. But despite his remarkable ingenuity for putting a fresh spin on familiar genre tropes, Jithu's humour doesn't quite land for me the way Nelson's does. The “Jailer 2” and “Doctor” filmmaker has a gift for writing humour that’s accessible to Tamil- and Malayalam-speaking audiences. Nelson’s grip is relatively stronger: he skillfully places his characters in whatever wild, darkly comic situation they are thrust into, without making it look awkward and forced. It's organic. Like Nelson, Jithu's characters operate outside the boundaries of what society conventionally sees as “normal”, a recurring trademark since his debut “Romancham”; the expression reached its zenith in “Aavesham” (the better film of the two).
Jithu's over-the-top characters act as though an invisible force is pinching their flesh from different angles, triggering “Ooh” and “Aaah” responses, and expecting an onlooker to laugh at this depending on which side of the spectrum your humour sensibilities lie. This kind of humour is certainly not my cup of tea. (Even “Aavesham” doesn't quite hold up for me on repeat viewings for precisely the same reason.) This over-the-top quality in his writing is deliberate, and where “Romancham” and “Aavesham” scored (for many), it found its weakest expression in “Painkili”, which he wrote. (He also wrote Chidambaram's “Balan: The Boy”, his most serious, and my favourite, work so far.)
Look, I don't have a problem with over-the-top characters or slapstick humour. There have been occasions where I was able to find the humour in films that the majority dismissed as “unfunny”, like Lijo Jose Pellissery's “Double Barrel,” or one of the polarising Ratheesh Balakrishnan Poduval films, like “Kanakam Kamini Kalaham.” If you're wondering why I'm mentioning Malayalam film references in the review for a Tamil film, the reason is simple: “Scene” is basically a Malayalam crime-comedy written in Tamil — that is, the grounded filmmaking sensibilities that Malayalam filmmakers are often associated with are on full display. This works in ways both inventive and tiresome.
Inventive, because Jithu presents a serial killer who doesn't behave like the serial killer we have seen in numerous films, from India and abroad. There's something to be said about how his "normal" appears in stark contrast to the "normal" of the good guys. It becomes fairly evident early on that Naslen's Ishawaran is a Malayali. He confirms it later when he occasionally, and accidentally, drops Malayalam lines that other characters don't get. There is also — no, I won't spoil it — another big Malayalam name playing another serial killer, whose face was thankfully kept out of the trailers. His presence adds significantly to the some of the principal novelty factors in “Scene”.
The most striking novelty factor is Suriya's portrayal of Inbaraj itself. The idea of a blind detective is not new. Johnnie To's 2013 film “Blind Detective” possesses the same spirit, but not the same story or plot developments. So, no, this doesn't fall under the “remake” category, because long before “Blind Detective”, there was an expansive series of Japanese samurai movies that revolved around a blind but gifted ronin named “Zatoichi”, who masterfully cut down his opponents with his katana owing to his heightened senses. The concept might be a hard sell, but if we can overlook the “logic” behind the operation of a contemporary version of this character, most recently in “John Wick: Chapter 4”, played by Donnie Yen, why not Inbaraj's? Let's also not forget Mohanlal’s blind character in Priyadarshan’s Malayalam hit thriller “Oppam”.
“Scene” is most entertaining when it makes us ponder the possibilities of this visually impaired sleuth confronting a supremely confident psychopath who has just got out of... high school. The film opens with Naslen's intro, and we are taken aback (in a good way) by the generally laid-back quality of this character — even the people who first come face-to-face with Eashwaran for the first time are flabbergasted. So when you have a killer who acts like the next-door guy, you know you're in for a fun ride — after all, his standout quality is that he doesn't stand out! When even people with clear vision cannot spot him in a crowd, how is a blind guy going to defeat him? It's a perfect opportunity to devise some genuinely hair-raising moments. Unfortunately, those are a few and far between.
The film may have worked even better if the background characters weren’t constantly behaving like, as mentioned earlier, an invisible force trying to pinch them — as if they belonged in a slapstick comedy — starting with Lal's character, who plays Inba's superior officer. He is the most over-the-top character of them all. Only a little of his antics qualifies as... digestible. The rest of it? Patience-testing. The same goes for Inba's junior officers who, despite looking different, share similar personalities, as though they are aiming to be the Tamil equivalent of Laurel & Hardy, judging by the fast-paced repartee. But there’s so much of it, and it got tiresome after a point. Jithu may have included these characters to put us at ease, perhaps to give the impression that “Scene” is not “Vettaiyaadu Vilayaadu”. But the only time the humour works is when Inba brings in his parents, who have their own interesting backstories and certain health conditions.
Speaking of health conditions, Nazriya's crucial character, Maya, also has one, but the film doesn’t use her and her dynamic with Inba for sentiment. In fact, Maya is more in command of her situation than Inba is — she becomes a guiding force, his eyes and ears, while also teasing the possibility that she could soon become his... heart? Nazriya's casting makes sense because Maya is also naturally vivacious. Nazriya only had to be herself.
So, despite its shortcomings, one finds much to admire in “Scene”, the most important being its subversive quality. It's a Suriya film that does and doesn't try to be a Suriya film. If your idea of a Suriya film is “Singam” or “Karuppu”, then “Scene” could put you off. But if your idea of a Suriya film is “Ghajini” or “24”, you might find this quite palatable. It’s not my kind of a wholesome meal, but at least I'm glad to see such ideas being welcomed by an actor of Suriya's stature.
Film: Scene
Director: Jithu Madhavan
Cast: Suriya, Nazirya, Naslen, Lal, Anandraj
Rating: 3/5
