Por Thozil (2023)
Directed by: Vignesh Raja
Starring: Ashok Selvan, R. Sharathkumar
SPOILERS AHEAD.
Serial-killer murder mysteries is a genre that I love watching - the tension building, the twists and turns - and Por Thozil does a good job at everything. It draws its tone and style from Fincher's films, True Detective and it takes a classical approach to filmmaking. The film picks up post the entry of Sharath Babu's character - Kennedy. Every scene there on carries terrific tension. Although the end reveal of him being the killer was eerily similar to the scene in Zodiac - I wish it was done slightly differently. Although what I loved about the whole Kennedy bit was that in the beginning, he feels like a red herring - but he is not. That's a nice diversion from the usual tropes of a serial killer film. Although he partly is. There is another killer too - although the link between both the killers didn't work for me. The whole act of the other killer kidnapping Sharath Babu's character to learn the tricks of killing people didn't seem convincing to me even at a writing level. But apart from this one link in the whole puzzle of the narrative, I enjoyed pretty much everything. I loved the whole act of catching the new killer too.
I really enjoyed Kennedy's backstory - it felt rich and it's a nice way of showing how circumstances can push people into extremes. It's a big debate - nature vs nurture - certain research says that psychopaths are not made, but are born. Some portions of their brains are not as developed and they cannot feel things. Now whether they turn criminals or not is circumstantial. Some research says that there are so many successful, famous people who could be psychopaths. The film touches upon this and doesn't go any deep into this - understandably so. The last scene, though, was a nice touch for the ending with a kind act - it also felt like a convenient visual way of solving a problem that can't be solved by any person. Although I loved the fact that the film even touches upon this whole debate - whereas I was happy with just the cat and mouse, serial-killer murder mystery.
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