Mrithyunjay was released in theatres today. In this section, we are going to review the latest BO release.
Plot:
By day, Jay (Sree Vishnu) works for the Obituary Department of a news daily. While his peers chase headlines, Jay chases the departed, securing the final words for those who can no longer speak. However, his aspiration is to join the Crime Bureau and crack breaking stories. Everything shifts during a routine. Amidst the mourning of a family, Jay spots a detail that doesn't fit the narrative of a natural passing. Driven by a hunger for the truth and a desperate need to prove his worth, Jay trades his notepad for a magnifying glass. His descent into the mind of a mysterious contract killer changes the course of the story.
Performances & Technical Departments:
Sree Vishnu is good in the role of an unauthorized investigator whose eye for detail is supreme. This time, he is not under pressure to elicit laughs. Veer Aaryan, the contract killer, is a man of few words. His deadpan approach to the character is not memorable, though. Reba Monica John is an inconsequential IPS officer who would be reporting to the dumbest possible constable in a parallel world.
Kaala Bhairava's background score is decent. Vidya Sagar Chinta's cinematography is not inventive. Sreekar Prasad's editing is tight in the second half.
Post-Mortem:
Director Sri Hussain Sha Kiran belongs to the Sukumar school of screenwriting. For years, he penned hundreds of scenes, filtered out most of them, and pitched the best ones to his master, who in turn made further ultra-filtration. Watching Mrithyunjay, you would believe that many scenes were the result of a rigorous mental self-training and tutelage for a sustained period of time. Probably, Sha Kiran worked at a deeper level on Nannaku Prematho compared with the Pushpa movies. The reliance on mathematical precision shows: in one of the scenes, a key character dodges CCTVs with the finesse of a geometry-powered AI model.
The film's cat-and-mouse chase is not between a heroic cop and a sinister villain. Rather, it is between a wannabe crime reporter and a contract killer committed to perfectionism. The modus operandi of the latter, how he can assume false identities at will, and how he goes about clinically executing the tasks handed over by his handler are written with a fair amount of detailing.
The mind games between Jay and the antagonist take unpredictable turns. Jay's genius (which doesn't always inspire awe) doesn't fit into a pattern, a character says. The fact, however, is that he just keeps getting lucky.
In an extended stretch, men who meet certain physical attributes are picked up for questioning from a busy marketplace. In a later stretch, the cops refuse to pick up someone very dangerous even though there is a higher likelihood of him being the person they are looking for. They want believable evidence this time. The relatives of Achyuth Sharma, one of the persons who was killed by the antagonist, voice their suspicions rather belatedly.
Closing Remarks:
Mrithyunjay is a disciplined departure for Sree Vishnu. This time, he trades his signature comedic timing for an investigative edge. While the film occasionally stumbles on inconsistent character intelligence, the cat-and-mouse game remains engaging.
