Anomie (Malayalam)
Riyas Marath’s Anomie is titled after a sociological term that refers to a society where nobody knows what to expect because the social codes have fallen apart. That means the clear boundary between Good and Bad no longer exists. It’s an interesting seed of an idea, and Anomie straddles thriller and science fiction in the process of exploring it.
Bhavana plays Zaara Philip, a forensic expert who is convinced that her brother Ziyan’s (Shebin Benson) suicide was, in fact, murder. She is pitted against Gibran (Rahman), a disgraced cop, who does a shoddy job of the investigation.
The film ticks the tropes of new-age crime thrillers — a feisty female character, a police officer who needs to prove himself, and a plot with one red herring after another. Though Anomie was shot in 2023, and these tropes may seem overdone now, the juicy combination almost never fails when done right.
Bhavana pulls off Zaara with ease, shifting between doting, worried sister and avenging angel. She gets her share of slow-motion shots and cusswords, and the actor’s screen presence is sufficient to drown out some of the awkwardness in the dialogue (propofol is a sedative drug, not “seductive” drug, for instance).
Rahman, too, digs into his character the best he can. But the script skims the surface, and doesn’t allow the characters to emerge as anything more than tropes.
While Marath has attempted to give both the characters equal weightage, the uneven writing and editing mean that the second half of the film forgets Zaara for quite a while before bringing her back with a compensatory punch. The turnaround in Gibran is also too sudden and unconvincing.
The screenplay is focused on action, and doesn’t devote enough time or depth to exploring the psyche of its protagonists. That means, emotionally, the viewer is at a flatline — I experienced some spikes only whenever Bella, Ziyan’s cat, made her appearance.
Since the plot revolves around the bond between sister and brother, the writing should have given us more than a generic song and a cuddly Persian to build it up.
There are some philosophical questions about life, death, consciousness, and the ethics of scientific quests that come up as the plot unravels, and Anomie would have earned its title if it had allowed the viewer to flirt with the possibility that Bad could be Good. Or that there isn’t any real difference between the two. However, the film stays firmly black and white with antagonists who aren’t half as interesting as the outrageous ideas they harbour.
The cinematography (Sujith Sarang) and the background score (Harshavardhan Rameshwar) elevate the suspense and the pay-off despite the writing being a letdown.
With a talented cast and an intriguing premise, Anomie could have been so much more. As it stands, it is neither so Good nor so Bad.
Sowmya Rajendran writes on gender, culture and cinema. She has written over 25 books, including a nonfiction book on gender for adolescents. She was awarded the Sahitya Akademi’s Bal Sahitya Puraskar for her novel Mayil Will Not Be Quiet in 2015.
Disclaimer: This review was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the film. Neither TNM nor any of its reviewers have any sort of business relationship with the film’s producers or any other members of its cast and crew.