Dridam review: Shane Nigam-starrer offers a generic mix of Shahi Kabir, Jeethu Joseph films

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With great expectations, Vijay Radhakrishnan (Shane Nigam) arrives in the rural village of Kuzhinilam as the newly appointed Sub-Inspector (SI). The understanding that it’s a peaceful locality allows him to breathe easy, thinking he can complete his first-ever posting without a hitch. However, he is dealt a bolt from the blue when the decomposed body of a man is found in his station limits, which is soon concluded to be a murder. As he begins his first proper investigation, Kuzhinilam is rocked by a major robbery at a local financial firm. But the surprises don’t end there. While Vijay and his fellow officers scramble to solve these cases, they recover two more bodies in the village. With no solid leads or evidence, Vijay is forced to search in the dark.

Dridam is one of those crime thrillers that’s far too middling to be taken seriously, let alone offer us a gripping ride. While writers Jomon John and Linto Devasia have tried to build it as a slow burner, introducing us initially to the central characters and the atmosphere where the story will unfold, Dridam is marred by dull moments and duller dialogues.

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This is not to criticise it for the lack of eventful or edge-of-the-seat moments. Take Abrid Shine’s Action Hero Biju (2016), for instance. Although much of the movie simply follows a bunch of cops on their business-as-usual days, mapping their routine jobs, it exudes a certain charm. Abrid and Muhammed Shafeekh’s script breathed beauty into the ordinary, and part of it was due to their honesty in the treatment. Also, they never deviated from the path they had set their focus on.

However, in Dridam, there’s a sense of artificiality throughout. Even when the movie tries to tread a similar route, exploring the banality of law enforcement, it never quite appears honest or authentic. Instead, even the seemingly realistic portrayals come across as contrived. Considering that Dridam often attempts to be a police procedural, there is an abundance of dialogues, and, with most of it sounding too soulless and uninspired, the movie is further weighed down.

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The confusion regarding what it is and what it wants to be is also quite palpable. While it behaves like a procedural at times, mapping the mundanity, cyclic nature, and confusion/chaos of police work — much like Shahi Kabir’s movies — it occasionally veers into the atmosphere of crime thrillers that it essentially is — following a Jeethu Joseph style, where suspense is given more importance than ensuring cohesive and overall growth of the narrative. While Dridam could have ensured an impressive blend of both, it never actually does justice to either genre.

Even the central characters, including Vijay, are quite superficial. For instance, there’s Kottayam Ramesh as Balan Nair, the typical senior Civil Police Officer (CPO) who sounds like he carries the wisdom of experience but never gets any opportunity to contribute to the larger narrative. Then there’s the typical ASI Krishnan Kurup (Shobi Thilakan), who is Vijay’s go-to person but whose character is so shallow that one might wonder whether he has any life outside the police station. In fact, the same holds true for most of the cops at the Kuzhinilam station.

Dridam is one of those crime thrillers that’s far too middling to be taken seriously, let alone offer us a gripping ride. (Credit: Facebook/@E4ExperimentsMovies)

Although Vijay appears in almost every frame, Dridam never really explores the different layers within him. Instead, we are shown only a few of his outbursts, as if we are expected to read into them whatever we will.

If the male characters are this underdeveloped, imagine what it’s like for the women. There are two female CPOs in the station, both as shallow as a puddle. The first time we meet all of the cops is when Vijay arrives at the station to take charge, and he is introduced to others by Krishnan. While the men behave normally, the women — Vidya (Saniya Fathima) and Remya (Krishna Praba) — are suddenly used by the writers to heap praise on Vijay’s good looks. Although they are also cops, the first time we hear Vidya and Remya speak, they are discussing Vijay’s cuteness and asking Krishnan if he’s married; as if women have nothing else to talk about but good-looking men. While Vidya never becomes more than the CPO with a crush on the SI, Remya just exists in the background, with nothing much to do. And, needless to say, both are token female characters who are given certain pointless characteristics simply to try and fool the audience into believing they have depth.

Not just the cops; Dridam features a bunch of other characters, too, who all come across as cardboard cutouts, included in the narrative as mere misdirections. Unfortunately, these attempts also fail to hit the mark. Although Dridam’s story had elements that could have turned it into an interesting thriller — revealed only in the climax — the way the script was built up to this point, with too many convenient plot devices, detracts from the experience.

While Shobi Thilakan and Kottayam Ramesh are solid in their roles, Shane Nigam’s acting falls short. Dridam even makes one wonder whether he has fallen into a loop of familiarity, where his gestures, reactions, and even “normal” expressions feel strikingly similar to some of his past performances.

Amid all the shortcomings, Dridam remains engaging to an extent due to Martin Joseph’s serviceable filmmaking, impressive for a debutant, where he hasn’t relied on the stock visuals often found in Malayalam crime thrillers — marred by low-key lighting shots and an overuse of blue grading. Sreerag Saji’s music is also commendable.

Dridam movie cast: Shane Nigam, Shobi Thilakan, Kottayam Ramesh, Dinesh Prabakar, Nandan Unni, Vinod Bose, Krishna Praba, Saniya Fathima
Dridam movie director: Martin Joseph
Dridam movie rating: 1.5 stars