‘The Smile Man’ movie review: Problems galore in this mirthless, pretentious psycho-thriller

A still from ‘The Smile Man’
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Three-quarters into The Smile Man, a character wonders whether the efforts to catch the psychopath at the centre of the film need as much attention as the Zodiac Killer, and this self-aware attempt at humour makes you chuckle for all the wrong reasons. In addition to the long list of genre films in Tamil that end up as mere imitations of popular titles, this try-hard psycho-thriller gets nauseatingly camp in places that you wonder if a parody would have entertained better.

Even the cop protagonist at the centre is an archetype diluted to its lowest denomination. As always the case with such films, he is a male cop who has retired from action; making him a loner, apart from saving you time from the drama families come with, helps wedge in a flashback. Surely he needs to get back to the case voluntarily and what more than guilt or regret can drive an honest man to commit? What if that guilt springs from a personal loss connecting him to the case (cinema bureaucracy seldom cares about conflict of interest)? And of course, he should suffer from some illness to make it a ticking game, and to justify any chips in his armour, intellectual or physical.

In his 150^th outing, Sarathkumar is underserved with one such archetype, Chidambaram Nedumaaran, who could put to shame other archetypes in his category. This is a cop who may not catch the killer even if the killer voluntarily walks into his den! Every time he makes a time-sensitive move, he gets all dizzy and disillusioned from his Alzheimer’s, a side-effect of a near-fatal accident he suffered while chasing a dreaded serial killer named Smile Man (a psychopath who carves grins on his victims). That his memories might soon fade away prompts Chidambaram to chase after the killer who escaped his clutches five years ago. You are slightly intrigued when a paedophile Chidambaram befriends ends up as the first victim of the killer in five years. In a different film, you would have reevaluated Chidambaram as the killer and wondered if this is all the making of his fractured mind, but The Smile Man bears no signs of such depth.

Chidambaram’s prognosis is used to such an extent that this is apparently why this man wouldn’t note down the registration of a suspect vehicle that is inches away from him, or spot a picture on the wall in front when he second-guesses if he entered the right house. Or, when his car’s door gets jammed next to a truck, he would rather let the killer loose than break the windshield…or just open a door on the other side.

After having starred in a neatly delivered psycho-thriller likePor Thozhil, it’s disappointing to see Sarath play deuce to a tacky film that makes you as annoyed as when you see horror film protagonists split up in a forest for whatever reason. Though he is aware of how debilitating his condition can be, Chidambaram repeatedly risks his best shots at the killer, when he could have just sought the help of his team, which includes the cop leading the investigation, Aravind (Sreekumar, with a single-note expression throughout), and Keerthana (Sija Rose). That he bears dark secrets doesn’t justify such actions since he could have used Aravind without spilling the beans.

Sarathkumar and Sija Rose in a still from ‘The Smile Man’
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Often not, you get the feeling the narrative was constructed choosing convenience over the need to be convincing, and the umpteen glaring loopholes leave you uninspired to invest. In this investigation, a city-wide alert and numerous bodies don’t prompt the police to check CCTV footage to backtrack the movements of the suspect’s vehicle, a white tempo van. The coolness of an overhead shot of an open-top van carrying a tied-up man around on chilly nights is prioritised more than explaining how this escaped all surveillance and witnesses.

We are told that the world believes that the killer was shot dead by an officer named Venkatesh (the opening scene had previously revealed Venkatesh to have died in another shootout that ended with Chidambaram’s accident and the killer escaping their clutches). Throughout the investigation, the cops wonder if the new killer is a copycat of the ‘real Smile Man’ who was allegedly killed. Now remember, that man who died five years ago has an identity, a face, and even a family. When a series of murders occur, the media and the police tend to attach a moniker: the Rostov Ripper, the Milwaukee Cannibal, the Butcher of Delhi, or, here, ‘Smile Man.’ When these killers are captured or killed, they are revealed to be Andrei Chikatilo, Jeffrey Dahmer, or Chandrakant Jha, and are reported with both their original name and the epithet given. Here, the Smile Man who was killed remains the Smile Man and is reported as just that, without name or photo, even when we get to see who this man was and how he died. Even his partner is called the wife of Smile Man!

Like a lengthy newsreel that recaps everything the straight-forward setting had just drip-fed, there are many concerning signs of underconfident writing and execution. The most annoying feature is how jarring scores underline even the most banal moments. Background music and sound effects strip away any space for subtlety, and even Chidambaram looking over his shoulders comes with heavy foreboding music. Lack of confidence is probably why the directors see no harm in repeating the shots of the grin-carved victims of this K-town Joker. How else would you show the psycho more menacing on Indian screens? The information that a girl child was one of the victims, or the recreation of how she died, and the clear shot of her corpse when she was found aren’t enough to make us feel for her. So you show repeated shots of her face skinned open to resemble a grin.

From the investigation that leads to the killer or the flashback to Chidambaram that the film holds back so preciously, nothing sticks. In a pivotal moment, when you see Chidambaram smiling, you feel bad for the actor behind him. With gelled-up hair and a bearded look resembling an aged Billy Butcher, Sarathkumar looks smarter and fitter than any 70-year-old actor. Unfortunately, his much-awaited 150^th outing may not leave him as a smiling man.

The Smile Man is currently running in theatres