‘Anumana Pakshi’ movie review: A cluttered, exhausting crime comedy

A second film by a director who is off to a successful start is generally considered a hurdle to cross. The safer route that most storytellers opt for is to stay within the same milieu as their hit film, with minor changes. Director Vimal Krishna succumbs to that demand with his sophomore outing, Anumana Pakshi, a wacky crime comedy in the same zone as his Telugu hit DJ Tillu, but set to a different metre.

Anumana Pakshi’s similarity to DJ Tillu largely lies in its genre and premise: an eccentric, lovestruck protagonist who lands in a soup with a dead body by his side. The aftertaste of such films often boils down to the central character’s appeal and how far the audience is willing to tolerate him as he miraculously bails himself out of trouble, one situation after another.

Right from the beginning, Sunny (Rag Mayur) is a high-pitched character who struggles to land. It is hard to be amused or enthused by his presence. As a compulsive overthinker, he fears the worst in every situation. When his parents spar over a petty issue with a maid, he presumes they are heading for a divorce. When a friend opens a massage parlour, he calls the cops, wondering if it is a cover for a shady business.

When he is contacted by someone from Kashmir, he worries that someone has set out to practise black magic on him, fearing his popularity on YouTube. Every second sequence exposes his insecurities across situations that cause complications with love, friendships, and career. As he lands in Kashmir and falls in love with a Telugu girl, Kanya (Merin Philip), chaos erupts when a key character dies.

Several oddball characters find themselves in the middle of the crime scene. There is a middle-aged cop honeymooning with his wife in the same location, making dance videos while his wife is busy spotting spirits. A father, who nicknames himself Santoor Daddy, is on the hunt for his daughter who is on the run. Random kidnappings, puerile jokes on love jihad, and terrorism pop up now and then.

The film runs out of steam quickly amid the desperation to make a loaded canvas work by hook or crook. While the protagonist is already annoying, the lazy writing is as much of a catastrophe, relying on inane punchlines and retorts for cheap laughs. The intermission sequence creates hopes of a possible recovery, but there is absolutely no control over the proceedings.

The flawed female protagonist and a few verbal exchanges between her father and Sunny offer some respite. The honeymooning police couple gets adequate screen time, but the film fails to integrate them with the core conceit effectively. A lengthy sequence in the latter half, where the characters are stuck amid a bunch of terrorists, is particularly tiring. The rather casual ending, where the mystery behind the death unravels, remains a sore spot.

Anumana Pakshi is perhaps inspired by the popular Telugu idiom ‘anumanam penu bhootham’, which regards suspicion as the root cause of all misery in life. The point is well noted, but some effort to establish why Sunny turned out that way would have given viewers something to root for. Sunny is precisely an exaggerated version of the insecurities lurking within everyone, though the plot struggles to convey them effectively.

Rag Mayur goes slightly overboard to cover up deficiencies in the writing, making the titular character mostly cacophonous. Merin Philip bags an interesting role, though it is conveniently sidelined after a point. Prince leaves little impression, while seniors Ajay, Raasi, and Brahmaji do their bit to land the occasional joke. Mast Ali is miscast in a forgettable role.

Sricharan Pakala’s album comes with a few surprises. Ramana Gogula’s energetic ‘Gulab Jam’ fits the film’s tone, while the Kashmiri number ‘Walo Walo’ lends a rare moment of authenticity to the backdrop. The compact 111-minute runtime offers little solace, weighed down by a haywire screenplay.

Anumana Pakshi brings together a potent mix of emerging faces and experienced hands across multiple departments; alas, it is all for a lost cause.