Review: Dhyan Sreenivasan’s ‘Jailer’ works only in parts

Dhyan Sreenivasan’s Jailer finally hit the screens on Friday, 18 August, after a legal tussle with Sun Pictures over the title. Both parties arrived at an out-of-court settlement.

Directed by Sakkir Madathil, the Malayalam movie is about the story of a jailer named Santharam who selects five murder convicts and tries to rehabilitate them. Well, this is based on a true incident that happened in 1957.

Will the jailer succeed in converting the convicts into kind human beings? — This forms the crux of the story.

As mentioned above, Jailer deals with the serious topic of the reformation of prisoners.

Santharam (Dhyan Sreenivasan) gets permission from the government and the jail authorities to take five prisoners to a place called Gandhigram. His mission is to reform them. He terms it an experiment on his part.

But his idea doesn’t go well with the Superintendent of Police (Manoj K Jayan).

Despite the warning that he would lose everything if he loses his mission, Santharam takes up the challenge to reform the five prisoners.

In Gandhigram, Santharam tells the prisoners to take up farming. Nevertheless, they don’t understand his intentions and try to escape after an untoward incident.

Confusion arises among them as the kids of one of the convicts, Kesavan (Sreejith Ravi), are allowed to stay with them.

This makes other prisoners think that Kesavan is Santharam’s favourite. Their anger towards the jailer because of many such instances.

As the movie progresses, Santharam’s intentions get fruitful, but he faces many risks in the process.

Flaws

Jailer has a common plot of anger, greed, and good intentions. But the infightings between the prisoners confuse them, and the viewers too, as to who is right and wrong.

The director must have thought of making a flick without any commercial elements, keeping in mind the ongoing Bombay Sarvodaya Mandal.

The Bombay Sarvodaya Mandal is involved in spreading Gandhian thought and philosophy. It has been conducting Gandhi Peace Exams in Mumbai Central Jail since 2004.

However, despite his novel efforts to narrate a clean story, bad writing plays a spoilsport in some scenes.

For example, a few sequences involving Keshavan and his children are too dramatic.

The movie has only one female lead — Divya Pillai as Chembaka, a local from Gandhigram.

In one scene, the prisoners try to harm her. In another scene, Chembaka tries to justify their deeds. This seems irrational and apparently doesn’t go down well with the audience.

Though the film is two hours in duration, certain scenes where the jailer preaches to prisoners make the viewers feel bored and unexciting.

For example, in one instance, the jailer asks the prisoners to pray with their hands folded — duh!

Also Read: Five riveting courtroom dramas of Malayalam cinema

Performances

Dhyan Sreenivasan as Shantharam is impressive. He hardly has any scope to deliver an extraordinary performance though.

Manoj K Jayan as the Superintendent of Police appears as a strict cop at the beginning. His transformation towards the climax is portrayed well.

Sreejith Ravi, Nawaz Vallikkun, Binu Adimali, Unni Raja, and Jayaprakash appear as the five prisoners. However, their appearance as jail inmates isn’t apt for a period movie. Performance-wise, they did a decent job.

Divya Pillai plays a key role as Chembaka but fails in the execution.

The location and sets are good. Had there been more elements for entertainment, the film would do well in theatres.

Verdict

Jailer is a film with a novel theme but works only in parts.

(Views expressed here are personal.)