DEATH: A MYSTERY WORTH SOLVING IN LIFE

“Suspense is like a woman. The more left to the imagination, the more the excitement.” Not my words; but, that of the English director, Alfred Hitchcock– the master of mystery movies.

"ಕವಲುದಾರಿ" ('Kavaludaari', which translates to: 'Crossroads') is a 2019 Kannada neo noir thriller, which lives up to the hype and hubris technically. The murder mystery is being remade in Tamil (as Kabadadaari), Telugu (as Kapatadhaari), Malayalam and Hindi.

The flick starts with the portrayal of a murder with sporadic, checkered visuals. A time jump moves the viewer in the present to KS Shyam (Rishi), a zealous traffic cop, who fervently aspires to be a detective in the crime department. The discovery of human bones at a construction site sets Shyam on a criminal investigation without official sanction.

During the underwraps probe, Shyam crosses paths with Muthanna (Anant Nag), a retired, alcoholic police inspector. The trail though trends into a tangled mess of twists and turns. The editor of a local newspaper, Kumar (Achyuth Kumar) assists Shyam in his shenanigans. A tale of greed, murder and mystery emerges...with powerful politicians not far behind.

So then, does Shyam crack the case?

Will the killers who orchestrated the crime be brought to book?

Kavaludaari's theme is well-conceived. But, director Hemant Rao has chosen to pile on potboilerish fare in the narrative. The story-telling and screenplay suffer from his urge to pack oodles of engrossing, edge-of-seat exhileration. A convoluted, coincidence-ridden second half is the chink in Rao's armour. But then, he is no Hitchcock.

Nonetheless, the suspense is quite intense.

As the 'Sherlock-Holmes-wannabe' Shyam, Rishi takes to his role like fish to water. Anant Nag delights as only he can. Performances of Achyuth Kumar, Sampath and the rest of the supporting cast too are topnotch. Advaitha Gurumurthy's camerawork and Charan Raj MR's music up the ante on the cinematic experience.

Neo noir films is a recent trend in Sandalwood. And this one is a decent watch!

My rating is: 7.5 on 10!

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