Krishand's working style is difficult to attribute to just one particular genre. I am hyped for his works and he is one of my favourite working Malayalam filmmakers alongside Prathap Joseph, Rahman Brothers, Sanju Surendran, Rohit M. G. Krishnan, Sajin Babu, Abhinav Sunder Nayak, Lijo Jose Pellissery, Rajeev Ravi, Amal Noushad, Krishnendu Kalesh and Sruthil Mathew. Maybe few early works of Don Palathara but not his banal 2021 outing Santhoshathinte Onnam Rahasyam and i still dislike Sanal's S Durga which one of the worst Malayalam films ever made with the recent addition 'No Mans Land' by Jishnu Harindra Varma.
Coming back to Krishand, i really loved his previous film "The Arbit Documentation of An Amphibian Hunt: Aavasavyuham" a mind-bending spectacle about a frogman with socio-political background. His latest 'The Male Ghost' also follows the same pattern and doesn't fit in a single genre. I suggest not be fooled by the title of this film. Because both the trailer and the name of the film itself are very deceiving. I expected to see something like a murder mystery, a bit of home invasion and psychological horror. What a stunt! It was a good tease and the film was much more than i assumed. This film is like a cocktail of genres bordering sometimes as a musical.
The movie begins with a quote "The dead teach the living," - Lars Kepler. In the local bar, it starts with a sequence leading to the intro of Super cop Sebastian (Prasanth Alexander), known for his, let's say, narcissist views, a bully to his juniors. He is also a good storyteller and as the movie unfolds, we get a glimpse of his life, a failure and that's all about him when the film highlights his relationship with his mother. A bully with behavioural issues and there is such an abyss of charm that his insecurity seems to be just an accident with some cinematic liberty and situational humours.
As we get know by his colleague that Sebastian gets only Movie-like unusual cases, enter an unidentified corpse which leads to a series of trouble in which Sebastian and other characters are tied by chance. He gets involved in all the bustle and chase with his department and the government. There is an affair angle which rings a bell in the end, literally a ring and also the racist brawl with a Tamilian bartender. As the plot progresses, the director through Sebastian reveals other characters and touches upon casteism, social commentary without going too much in details. I liked most of the characters in the film, special mention to the mother, maid, the old man who is in charge of burial, junior cop who is always bullied by Sebastian and the Senior police who also plays an actor and ends up losing his beard. The last stop for Sebastian is to investigate Susan (Darshana Rajendran) and the build up to the climax is engaging as circumstances are popping up. And all this is framed by some kickass neo-noir drenched black humour, the gags are organic in here.
Final note, the plot is engaging with a wacky style to it, which is both very unique and subtle in its texture. And also, we have a missing/washed up corpse but it plays a frankly secondary role and stands out in post-credit scene to voice out an important message.
