Mumbai Police Analysis

Mumbai Police (2013)

Directed by: Rosshan Andrrews

Written by: Bobby-Sanjay

Available on Hotstar.

This film is a murder mystery cop film, but it distinguishes itself from the label of the genre by adding an interesting element which is, the cop loses memory after an accident and he has to solve it again from scratch. The writing and the treatment of the film isn't in a way where you are at the edge of your seat every moment, the film doesn't try to do that anyway. It is a murder mystery made in a pacing which is similar to any other mainstream Malayalam film, I love films with this pacing where you can just lay back and watch the story. Usually Netflix shows have this sort of pacing, I can recall the mini-series Unbelievable which had this sort of pacing. Films like Raatsasan, Kaithi, Kshanam, D-16 are brilliant thrillers, they all have cut-throat pacing but what I'm saying is that thrillers with slower pacing are also good, because a thriller per se gives the idea of you being thrilled by it constantly. David Fincher's films also have an interesting pacing, they don't rush the story but by the editing it feels like it is being told in a crisp way. Most of Martin Scorsese's films are long and yet the films keep moving dynamically. 

In this film, the fundamental flaw that I felt was the person before the accident and after the accident not only have a difference in memory but also difference in character which didn't make sense. The person before the accident does some mistakes, in a scene he manhandles a woman and the person after the accident feels guilty for it? The person before the accident is homosexual and the person after it is almost homophobic. Apart from this, the screenplay was well written by the writer duo Bobby-Sanjay. In a murder mystery, one of the most important things to have is misdirection and they do it well in this film. The crime scene analysis is well written and done, we as audience get to know the crime scene in so much detail that we feel participated in the storytelling which is also important in suspense dramas.

The making of the film is minimalist other than the small fight scenes we see here and there which do nothing for taking the story forward, they are just there to add more layers of suspense in the film which I think is a decent reason to have a fight scene; it is at least a better reason that to make money from the Hindi dubbing rights. I think in Malayalam cinema, the limitation of budget is a bliss because that makes them entirely rely on things which require human brain, hard work and creativity more than money like writing and performances instead of having songs, a ton of extras or extravagant action scenes. They can be helpful if used well, but most of the times they pollute the storytelling. Music is used more than foley in this film, they use music in almost every scene of the film; it works in reminding us of the emotional angle in the film. The Mumbai Police angle didn't work emotionally for me but it worked enough to give the film a proper closure.