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Forensic Movie Review: Vikrant Massey, Radhika Apte’s Middling Remake Veers Away From Malayalam Original With a Romantic Track and a WTF Third-Act Twist! (LatestLY Exclusive)

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Forensic Movie Review: Say what you want Vishal Furia’s remake of the Malayalam mystery thriller by the same name, his Forensic can never be claimed as a scene-by-scene adaptation. While the basic premise, the protagonists’ jobs and the identity of the serial killer remain the same, Forensic‘s remake take some major detours from what the original Malayalam film did in 2021. One major change is adding a listless romantic angle between the main leads, and the other major detour being a crazy, bonkers twist with regards to the killer in the third act! OTT Releases Of The Week: Elliot Page’s The Umbrella Academy Season 3 on Netflix, Vikrant Massey’s Forensic on ZEE5, Sanjay Suri’s Avrodh Season 2 on Sony LIV & More.

In the Malayalam original, Tovino Thomas’ and Mamta Mohandas’ characters don’t have any romantic tension, with him being the brother-in-law of Mamta’s character. In the remake, Rocky (Vikrant Massey) and Megha (Radhika Apte) were once like Prem and Nisha from Hum Aapke Hain Kaun – in love while their respective elder siblings were married to each other. In both cases, the bhabhi turns spoilsport, being dead at that!

Megha now hates both him and his elder brother (Rohit Roy) for the tragedy that befell the family. However five years later, both Megha, now a cop, and Rocky, now an in-demand forensic expert, have to team up to solve a spate of children killings in their town.

Watch the Trailer:

The Malayalam Forensic, in my opinion, was a decent thriller that is gripping enough with its scientific procedurals, dark themes and a good (not great) killer reveal. It wasn’t mind-blowing stuff, but the movie does its work right to be arresting till the last scene, aided by the performances of Tovino Thomas and Mamta Mohandas. But I was unsure what to make first of the Hindi remake, when the male lead makes his intro at a crime scene by creepily singing a nursery rhyme and approaching a body with a manic glee in his eyes. For a moment, I thought whether the makers got their notes wrong and they ended up making a Dexter remake.

I don’t mind if a remake takes liberties with the plot or the characters if the liberties improve upon the original. Forensic takes liberties enough, but ironically, the movie works best when it actually sticks to the original, when it allows the investigation process to come to the forte. Especially the forensics portions, though there are a few loopholes that couldn’t be ignored.

However, it is the diversions that bog the film down, the melodramatic approach towards the past tension between the leads, and a couple of filler songs to enhance that further. Forensic remake also takes the cliched route of having the heroine uber-serious, while the hero is comparatively casual, cheery, jocular, and in my opinion, bizarre. Apart from Massey and Apte who are ok, none of the other performances make a mark. Though there is one actor who deliver quite a surprising WTF performance, and for SPOILER reasons, I am not saying who. Forensic: Director Vishal Furia Says This Film Will Not Be Like Other Murder Mysteries.

Which also brings me to the movie’s most inane detour from the original which is its third act. Whether you have watched the original or not, there is a high chance that you are going to be mind-blown by how the reveal is presented, and not exactly in good-awesome way. Let’s say, that this particular twist reminded me of a ’90s Bruce Willis mystery thriller. No. Not The Sixth Sense, but a film that is considered among one of the silliest thrillers of Hollywood purely because of its WTF reveal. Readers can answer which movie I am talking about in the comments section below. Anyway, going back to Forensic‘s third act, the twist is something I truly enjoyed in terms of how they decided to go for it, and yet it is way too bonkers enough to feel serious about, and could be detrimental to a certain section of the society – perception-wise. My head was reeling so much that I nearly ignore how tamely and predictably the remake tamely concluded itself after that (not that the original did a better job at that). Well, at least, I didn’t see this one coming!

Yay!

– The Investigation Portions Have Its Moments

Nay!

– The Dramatic Portions

– Doesn’t Live Upto the Original Despite that Crazy Twist

Final Thoughts

The Hindi remake might have brought substantial changes to the original Malayalam version, but those changes don’t make the new Forensic any better. In fact, the remakes meddles with better parts of the Tovino Thomas-starrer, with its side-tracks and weak character development. Save for that bonkers third act twist, Forensic Hindi remake is just about an okay adaptation with occasional spurts of engrossment. Forensic is streaming on Zee5.

(The above story first appeared on Today News 24 on Jun 24, 2022 12:11 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website todaynews24.top).

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