ഇടി (IDI) (2016)

Director: Sajid Yahiya
Writers:  Sajid Yahiya, Arouz Organ
Cinematographer: Sujith Sarangi
Cast: Jayasurya, Sunil Sukhada, Joju George
Language: Malayalam

IDI stands as an acronym for Inspector Dawood Ibrahim who dreamt of being a Police inspector after watching the various macho police roles played on screen by the likes of Mammooty and Suresh Gopi.

The teaser poster and trailer of the film suggested that it caters to the taste of a certain section of Malayalee audience who likes watching dumb Telugu and Tamil mass films. Idi is anything but as it is a very intelligent spoof film. But its misleading promotion might have backfired as it attracted the wrong kind of audience and is not doing terribly well at the box office. Even I decided to give it a go only after confirming that it is infact a spoof film as I was not very impressed by the trailer and initial reports. I'm glad I did it as I didn't want to add another one to the list comprising of  Aadu and Lukka Chuppi, two Jayasurya films that I missed out in theatres due to a combination of misleading promotion and poor word of mouth. He is known as the torrent star of Malayalam film industry and Idi will be another one to be added to his list of torrent hits.

One cannot really fault them for the misleading promotion because that in itself was a spoof on the audience. Sad fact is that Malayalee audience are not very good at judging things correctly when a film defies their expectations. Spoof films and screwball nonsensical comedies haven't done well at box office recently going by the box office fate of films like Aadu, Chirakodinja Kinavukal and Double Barrel.

Idi starts with them showing the birth of its protagonist, a spoof on a very annoying trend in Malayalam cinema. We realise that the film itself is a spoof by only about 20 minutes into the film. The first half of it is a laugh riot. It doesn't disappoint in the second half also even though the laugh quotient is taken a peg down leading up to its climax action sequence. I was not convinced by Jayasurya in the trailer but he is super good along with the entire cast. It is technically also very good even though the fight sequences in the trailer looked a tad amateurish. I think it is a case of the film being a whole lot better as a complete package even though the elements in it individually doesn't really stand out. The BGM was also a letdown in the trailer but the same works very well during the film. Please do watch it at the cinemas as it really deserves a much better box office returns.

Rating: 4/5