'Writer' review: Another hard-hitting Tamil film on police atrocity

Writer

Tamil (Aha)

Director: Franklin Jacob

Cast: Samuthirakani, Hari Krishnan

Rating: 3.5/5

Franklin Jacob’s debut movie ‘Writer’ (2021) is a crime thriller that talks about the abuse of police power. Samuthirakani plays a cop who works with a moral balance.

The film, backed by ace filmmaker Pa Ranjith, highlights the atrocities of the police and targets the abuse of hierarchy within the police realm. The movie also attempts to showcase the flawed social system.

Thangaraj (Samuthirakani) seems to be a man sorted with his life. Soon his fate gets entangled with a PhD student, Devakumar (Hari Krishnan), who is falsely accused of indulging in anti-national activities.

Thangaraj unknowingly becomes a perpetrator in impinging the false accusation on the student. He then learns that some of his higher-ups are involved in this case. Whether Thangaraj’s struggle to bring justice to the student is fruitful or futile marks the climax of the movie.

‘Writer’ touches on many themes. The first and foremost being the need to form a Police Union. Another theme, which is portrayed as a snippet, is caste discrimination.

Devakumar’s flashback probes the audience to notice the struggles of a community to get the new generation educated. Jacob tries to pool in aspects such as certain books becoming objectionable literature, and Devakumar’s PhD topic represents the want of academic freedom.

The movie hints at the role of the writer at a police station. It is a position that is almost invisible yet an indispensable cog in the machinery of police report filing. Imagining a crime scene rather than reporting what has happened is a serious indictment of the police.

‘Writer’ interlinks two of society’s major institutions — police force and education. Despite the minor writing issues in the second half, the film is an engaging and thoughtful affair.