CAST: Vikrant Massey, Radhika Apte, Rohit Roy, Prachi Desai, 

DIRECTED BY: Vishal Furia

BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT

Radhika Apte and Vikrant Massey’s Forensic, is a psychological thriller about a cop (sub-inspector Megha Sharma played by Apte) and a forensic officer (Massey as Johnny Khanna), who come together to find a serial killer.

Forensic (2022) is the Hindi remake a Malayalam film of the same name starring Tovino Thomas and Mamta Mohandas. The Malayalam original, was a far more sensitive and braver film than the remake is.

THE MEAT AND THE POTATOES

The plot of the remake moves the serial killings and the police and media response to the crimes from Thiruvananthapuram to Mussoorie, which, of course, serves the purpose of giving the film a fresh look. It sadly does not help the narrative  and a weak script at all. The film reeks of banality. The antiquated tropes and generic action sequences in the climax only make us feel that the heart of the makers was just not in the narrative.

A girl is kidnapped from a church. Hours later, she is found dead in a dump. Megha  and Johnny are pressed into service to investigate the crime. The killer seems to be a step ahead odf them as more schoolgirls, including the local MLA’s daughter. are kidnapped and murdered on their birthdays and the trail leads to wrong suspects.

As the news about a psychopath on the run spreads, Schools are shut in panic. The cops are under immense pressure to find the serial killer before he or she can strike again. 

IN THE KNOW

 The movie flatlines after the initial high of interest as the script does not hold up the interest of the audience. 
The plot is so predictable that commendable actors like Vikrant and Radhika are not able to keep the interest of the viewers high.

In the early scenes, Johnny’s demeanour is inexplicably happy while investigating gruesome murders.

Scriptwriters Adhir Bhat, Ajit Jagtap and Vishal Kapoor make fugly changes to the OG plot and have thrown in an old man with dementia, an instance of sex change, cop politics that pits SI Megha Sharma against her immediate superior. There is Ronit Roy and Ananth Mahadevan not given enough to do in the plot for some reason.

The story tries to base itself on mental health as the cause of the murders but fails in making it all important by adding sub-plots that dilute the message. 

The forensic lab scenes were interesting and would have made sense for that jazz to be explored more since using tech to come to logical conclusions has not be documented well in Indian movies.

The romance and the intimacy in between was such a vibe killer.

On the whole, it could’ve been good, but wasn’t .