The Smile Man Movie Review

The edge-seated crime-thrillers have become the celebrated cherry-picks of Tamil audiences in the recent times. Especially, the post-pandemic phase that witnessed the emergence of OTT platforms have introduced us towards commendable films of the genre, especially from Malayalam film industry.

Well, ‘Por Thozhil’ turned out to be a massive hit winning greater reception for its nitty-gritty thriller moments laced in the screenplay. Incisively, the movie ‘The Smile Man’ is yet again another potboiler from the same genre. Nothing wrong in coming up with a serial-killer based investigative thriller, but it’s all about ‘Gripping Screenplay’ that keeps audiences engrossed. However, in this film, it is totally missing, which turns out to be a big minus for the film.

Sarath Kumar plays a CBCID officer, who during one of his investigations of a serial killer met with an accident and got prone to Alzheimer disease. After 5 years, he is yet again drawn into the world of investigation as ‘The Smile Man’ pattern of murders starts reoccurring in the city of Coimbatore. While Sree Kumar has been appointed to head the case, and he in turn, looks up for the help of Sarath Kumar. With his team of officers, the protagonist starts investigating the case, but with a major challenge of conflicting his own ailments.

As aforementioned, the basic plot of this film is interesting, but when it comes to penning the screenplay in a riveting style, director Shyam Praveen fails to materialise it properly. To be precise, the writing is good in places, but the actual problem is the way it has been materialized visually. The first half leaves no bigger impact with slow-paced screenplay. Just as we expect something more gripping in the second half, we are thrown into confusions with complicated writing.

When it comes to performance, Sarath Kumar has done a neat job, and has exhibited his acting prowess efficiently. This film marks his 150th movie in his career, and it’s really great to see him perform with same charisma and fitness across the years. Rest of the actors are just okay. The background score and cinematography attempt to elevate the film in many places.

The murder pattern of leaving a ‘Smile’ mark on the dead victims starts evoking a laughter element rather than seriousness, which should have been properly considered and worked accordingly by the makers.

On the whole, The Smile Man has a good plot, and with a good screenplay, it could have offered a good cinematic experience to the audiences, but doesn’t accomplish it.