Murder on Sowparnika Express

K Madhu produces and directs "Nadia Kollapetta Rathri" which is a thriller that investigates the death of 3 girls on board a train that plies between Chennai and Mangalore. For all of those who are familiar with Agatha Christie, this murder in a train part is a straight lift off "Murder on the Orient Express" published in 1934. But, unfortunately, our own AK Sajan who is creditted with the story(!), screenplay and dialogue is no Agatha Christie and this is where the film suffers. I would not give away the entire snapshot of the movie, but this is just an intro as to what to expect in the movie: National Shooting champion Nadia Mather (Kavya Madhavan), renowned Classical dancer Thulasimani (Suja Karthika) and daring NDTV reporter Shreya Mariya (Suja) are on board the first class AC coach of Sowparnika Express with many others like the Railway SP of Palakkad division, a renowned Tamil Novelist, a small time actress and her parents, a mentally ill young man and his parents, 4 junior doctors who look more like thugs, a TTE who is more interested in playing cards and the AC coach attendant. The next morning, Thulasimani is found hanging in her coupe, Nadia Mather is found fighting with death in her coupe with the mad guy next to her and the corpse of Shreya Maria is found on the tracks. This case is taken up for investigation by Railway Action Task Force head Dr. Sharafuddin Taramasi IPS (Suresh Gopi) and how he solves each of the mysteries is what the rest of the movie is about. Though K Madhu has occassionally been serving thrillers to the Kerala audience, three girls being killed on board the same train is a very novel thought for Malaylam cinema. The mystery behind each murder has been solved well, and AK Sajan could have done a lot with a plot like that. Unfortunately, he decides to glorify Suresh Gopi's image and the result is that we have quite a few shoddily written and badly shot scenes in the first half and Suresh Gopi's irritating slang makes it all the more unbearable. After every dialogue, one sees Suresh Gopi turning his head fast in a bizarre fashion and such scenes make you squirm in your seat. K Madhu does a fairly good job with his direction especially in the second half, though this film is nowhere close to any of his CBI movies (not even Nerariyan CBI). The veteran Anandakuttan does a good job with his camera work. The art direction is first class though the editor could have done a better job in the first half. Background score by Rajamani is in keeping with the mood of the film though there is nothing extraordinary in it like what we heard in Irupatham Noottandu or the CBI series. Suresh Gopi is his usual self. This is definitely not one of his best performances but he doesn't disappoint completely either. Siddique looks good in his new hairstyle and get up, though he does not have much to do. Anoop Chandran, Suresh Krishna, Shammi Thilakan and Sadique are good. Suraj Venjarammoodu needs to be careful in selecting his roles. He plays Thathamangalam Muthu here who hails from Palakkad district, but still speaks his trade mark Thiruvananthapuram slang thus repeating himself. This is how talented artistes are wasted, I suppose. The movie, however, belongs completely to Kavya Madhavan. This is probably the best role she has played till date and she makes good use of every opportunity in the script, clearly overshadowing even the hero of the movie in the climax. Good going, girl. To sum up, if you can bear the first half of Nadia Kollapetta Rathri, you will enjoy the second half!