Napoleon - Movie Review

‘Napoleon', starring Anand Ravi, Ravi Varma and Komali in lead roles, is out in the theatres on November 24th. Let's find out what works and what doesn't.

Story

Napoleon (Anand Ravi) approaches the local CI (Ravi Varma), saying that his shadow is missing. Right from the word go, the case is deemed to be quite peculiar, especially because he doesn't recognize his wife Sravanthi (Komali). He is sent even to doctors for tests. Once he becomes the talk of the town with news channels feverishly reporting about his case, Napoleon starts delivering one bombshell after another either to police or the media. Saying that God tells him some secrets in dreams, the weird man talks about an accident case that was recently closed by the cops. It pertains to the murder of one Tirupathi. The media too get interested in this case and Vardhan (Gururaj), the man behind the brutal murder, starts worrying about the developments.

Ravi Varma leads the investigation into the case. To his shock, he learns that the murder is foul. The rest of the film is about who Napoleon is, what his relationship with the murdered Tirupathi is, why he is not recognizing his wife, and how the case is solved.

Analysis

Let it be said at the outset that the film is a crime thriller that has traces of the supernatural. The story essentially revolves around three characters: Napoleon aka Ashok, the CI and Sravanthi. Written and directed by Anand Ravi (the film's titular man), the main drawback of this film is that it tries to seem to be tricky although there is no need. The dialogues spoken by Ravi’s' character border on the over-smart. Despite being in distress, it's not clear why he should while away the time in talking about people's apathy, etc. A number of dialogues in the first half suggest that the film is a social message-oriented one. But they are quite misleading as it has no such social cause in the mind.

Napoleon becomes a museum piece in no time. But the world is busy discussing the content of his dreams rather than showing interest in how he has mysteriously missed his shadow - something which is humanly impossible. The CI treats Napoleon as if some Standard V child has come to the police station because he has forgotten the way to his house. Time and again, this Napoleon speaks as if he wants to change the society by preaching everybody a sense of responsibility.

In the second half, however, we learn that he is there for a personal, revenge-driven purpose! This flawed characterization creates many avoidable questions in the audience's mind. The interval bang is laughable if not tragic. The lead man needs to know the identity of his enemy. But the person's phone number is very much there in the pocket of the dead character (named DMK) who is there right in front of him! Moreover, the police don't investigate the murder of this character at all!

The investigation scenes are lazily told. For example, there is a lag even in checking the CCTV footage. Komali's characterization is strong and it's perhaps the only consistently written one. The flashback episodes are well narrated, although the visuals are amateurish even in these crucial portions. By the way, most of the film seems to take place within a single compound! Even at 105 minutes or so, the film is lengthy. It's because much of the content is delivered only in the last 20 minutes.

The performances are at the level of a short-film. Debutante Anand Ravi is good in the lead role but he has gone overboard at sometimes. Ravi Varma is a neat performer, but some of the self-elevating lines could have been avoided. Komali is just about OK. Siddharth Sadasivuni's background music is largely inspired. Cinematographer Margal David was not given much bandwidth to explore.

Verdict: 'Napoleon' has a different concept and has fairly better first half. The story line works, but other elements go for a toss. The making should have been more professionally.