Director
Anoop Panic
Cast
Amala Paul, Riythvika, Munishkanth, Thrigun, Harish Uthaman, Athulya Ravi, Vinod Sagar
What is the story
Bhadra Thangavel (Amala Paul) is an expert pathologist known for solving the most complicated cases. She helps Deputy Police Commissioner Vishal (Harish Uthaman) solve a surgeon’s murder case. The duo’s investigation leads them to a prisoner named Vetri (Thrigun), who had sworn to kill the surgeon. Despite Bhadra and Vishal’s precautions and their detention, Vetri also manages to execute a second murder. What happens next forms Cadaver’s knot. Will Bhadra be able to solve the case? Will there be new twists on Bhadra’s path? Well, you’ll have to watch the movie to find out.
Watch the trailer
what is good
Amala Paul’s performance is commendable
Amala Paul is the soul performer of ‘Cadaver’. From the start, she carries the burden of the story on her shoulders and she delivers. The nuances she brings to the character of a medical examiner are brilliant. Whereas at first you are convinced that she is a stone-hearted doctor who tries to disassociate herself from the patient and not become emotionally invested. However, as the climax unfolds, that perception totally changes, and Paul managed to bring that transition along smoothly.
Aravind Singh’s cinematography is “Cadaver’s” other strong point. Not only were the exterior locations brilliantly explored, but even the interior scenes of a morgue were shot to perfection. Usually cinematographers end up making very dark scenes in a thriller, however, Singh managed to keep the perspective of the story front and center and was able to bring out the details of the scene perfectly. To add to that, the beautiful locations were well filmed with great use of drones and long range cameras. There is a specific scene of a long winding road with an abyss on one side taken from above, which looks marvelous on screen.
what’s wrong
Cliché history and outdated direction
Anoop Panicker’s writing and directing are “Cadaver’s” only weak point. In a murder mystery, you expect to have a climax where things are revealed that you didn’t expect at all. Unfortunately, since there are no other major stars in ‘Cadaver’ early on, you’d expect Amala Paul’s character to have more than meets the eye, and when the climax unfolds , your guesses are profitable, and so disappointed with the story. While the plot was fantastic, the predictability of the story makes it old wine served in a new bottle.
As for the direction, Panicker used some very old tricks of the trade that any average cinephile today would have seen in many other movies. Therefore, this wow factor has also lost its charm. At the climax when the backstory is revealed, do you scratch your head thinking that’s all this story is based on? ! It’s too cliché.
Panicker missed the trick that was unique to this movie – the medical examiner’s angle. Many more intricacies should have been explored when examining the bodies or when investigating the murder mystery. It should have shown more how Paul’s character solves the mystery using his forensic knowledge and years of morgue experience.
Also, Panicker added unnecessary action sequences that were absolutely unnecessary. A scene where Paul and some policemen are waiting at the church cemetery in the middle of the night just to fight with goons. Too forced! Could have easily been avoided.
Another thing shrouded in mystery was why Vetri (Thrigun) was behind bars. It hasn’t been shown too much what he’s done to be imprisoned for over four years. This angle should have been clarified in a much simpler way to get the audience more interested in the backstory.
And then, who killed the father of the church? No explanation was given, but it was understood that the main villain must have probably had him killed. Panicker left many of these storylines open making the audience even more disinterested.
Verdict
Amala Paul had a winner at hand with a killer plot for a great murder mystery. However, the predictable writing and musty direction just sucked the fun out of the thriller. Paul’s performance was the saving grace of this film. If you like murder mysteries at best this is a unique watch others shy away from. I go with 1.5 stars.
