Indra movie review: It aims to be gripping serial-killer thriller but falters with flat writing, distant characters, and routine storytelling, leaving little intrigue or emotional depth to be invested Indra (Vasanth Ravi) is a police officer on suspension, living with his wife Kayal (Mehreen Pirzada). His alcoholism renders him blind and during this time, finds his wife to be the latest victim of a serial killer on the loose. But just as they seem to near the killer, there comes a twist and a stranger is at play.
For about the first 15 minutes or so in Indra, a film that has gone all out to scream it’s a serial killer thriller (from the trailer), it is about the titular character alcoholic-raged routine. Dropping off his wife Kayal with discomfort of silence glaring between them, and seeking out an update on his suspension, Indra’s days are filled with monotony and frustration. Likewise, it’s not very long the feelings become mutual and passed on to us. Indra, in an attempt to be a mystery thriller, becomes a messy affair of too many things brought in together, that even a passable concept becomes a tedious watch.
Indra starts off as a serial killer story, that after a serious of murders take place in a similar fashion, the police begin to find the pattern and near the killer. It is at this time when the case gets closer to home for Indra, and story doesn’t play hard to get. To give credits where it is due, there is no hide and seek and the film gets straight to the point. To call a spade a spade, there is nothing more than genre-sticking routine the film takes, barely becoming any sort of engaging. But where it fumbles is that we are neither brought closer to Indra as a character, nor do the actor make us invest enough into the protagonist’s life. We are seldom made to understand Indra and Kayal’s lives beyond the facts that they live a posh apartment. The characters are distant, and bringing in Sunil’s Abhimanyu who is set up as the antagonist for a brief time, does not really add up any value to the film apart from taking some runtime. It’s in form of rushed episodes that the film briefs us about the serial killer’s pattern, and seldom do we really get into the psyche of the characters.
