Since you walk into the theatre knowing that it is a thriller, the cosy warm picture of a beautiful hillside is something you know will soon fade. So you embrace the first few minutes as the cinematographer of John Luther, Roby Varghese Raj, lets you have a nice panoramic view of Munnar and its hairpin roads, and the tour bus climbing hill after misty hill, until a predictable thud breaks the spell. The thud is followed by a piercing scream, blood on the window and a body on the deck. John Luther, the man who will reach the spot and uncover the mystery is your titular character – Jayasurya in an uncharacteristically serious, barely smiling police role. For nearly two hours, the film flows by almost smoothly, ticking several boxes of a gripping thriller, and then in the last 20 minutes, digs its own hole, and falls right into it. A script that seemed to boldly disregard the image of the infallible hero appears to apply sudden brakes, realise the risks, and then go overboard in quickly sculpting a superhuman out of John Luther.
Writer and director Abhijith Joseph has carefully constructed the plot, balancing the script between John’s family and workplace. In a few well written scenes, it is made clear that John is a helpless workaholic, and always shows up late for family events. He also makes retreats far too quick for the liking of his disgruntled father – a salt-and-peppered Siddique. Athmeeya Rajan, who has been seen taking on wife roles in quite a few recent movies, once again plays the nice and forgiving partner, appearing only in short sequences to set context for John’s private life. Two Shaan Rahman songs full of family moments are wedged in, as if to make amends.
But John’s mind is fully on the case. Abhijith gently pushes him out of his home and into the Munnar roads he keeps circling in the company of two other officials – Deepak Parambol and Sivadas Kannur, a real life cop and occasional actor. Along with the death in the early scenes pops up a series of missing persons cases, very interestingly narrated. You, as the viewer, are allowed to see one of the captures, making your skin crawl as a schoolboy leaps unsuspectingly into a truck. Abhijith appeared to have got the hang of it in his very first film – adding doses of music at the right moments, taking the camera away just when you are about to spot the villain, letting John and his men pick up one piece after another.
Watch the trailer
Just when you stretch your legs and leave the case in the reliable hands of John, he goes and gets himself injured. This happens during an action sequence that you might have just mocked for being there; it seemed stitched up just for the hero to beat up a couple of rogues and show off. But then that is the time a tube light is smashed onto John’s head, and his ears are nearly completely damaged.
Jayasurya playing a man with a hearing problem, soon after his role with a speech problem in Meri Awas Suno, may seem like stereotyping, but he pulls it off, presenting two entirely different characters with careful preparation. As John, he is a world away from his real life persona. John Luther is the opposite of the actor who cracks jokes and laughs out loud, and the hearing problem does not seem to change him in any way. With his family’s help, he comes back to the case equipped with a hearing aid and a recorder, unable to stay away from all the action. Here is where the script first disappoints. Except to prove Jayasurya’s commendable skills of absorbing the character and his traits so deeply, the ear injury does little to affect the script. Why was it there, you wonder, because it does not seem to play a role in the rest of the investigation. The only difference is that Jayasurya makes people repeat things, records what they say, and speaks too loudly. The script also does not address how the police force allows a man with an acute hearing problem back on the case, which is already under a lot of scrutiny.
But where the film really falters, like we said, is in the last 20 minutes, when John Luther, who had admirably taken a beating like a regular human being in the earlier half, is suddenly invincible. Unless the script adds a superhero effect to the tube light-beating, nothing explains his newfound invincibility. The problem is the inconsistency. If it had wanted to be a mass film where the hero snaps a bullet away or breaks a train in half, it should have started that way. It is a nasty blow when the film had seemed like a grounded tale all along, and then suddenly bursts off.