Vallan Movie Review : Too many threads derail this mystery

Vallan Movie Synopsis: A suspended cop investigates a businessman’s murder that links to his missing fiancée. The case reveals money laundering through religious trusts and a hidden truth about a child’s death.

Vallan Movie Review: VR Mani Seiyon’s Vallan opens with an escape from a police station and ends with money laundering through religious trusts, cramming enough plot between those bookends to fill an entire season of prestige television. Unfortunately, what it can’t squeeze in is a reason for us to care about any of it.

The film follows suspended cop Divakar (Sundar C) as he investigates the murder of Joel (Kamal Kamaraj), a prominent businessman found dead in his ECR farmhouse. The case unexpectedly connects to his own missing fiancée, Aadhya (Tanya Hope), who disappeared after discovering something fishy at Joel’s company. Along the way, we get a model (Hebah Patel) being interrogated, a maid harbouring dark secrets, a power struggle at Joel’s company involving his wife Anitha, and an evangelical empire run by Arokyaraj that’s more interested in money than ministry. The final revelation hinges on a child’s accidental death that somehow binds all these disparate threads together, though, by then, we lose the will to connect the dots.

Sundar C, in a surprise lead turn, brings a steady if subdued presence to Divakar, moving through scenes with the urgency of someone reading a phone book. Hebah Patel has some good screen presence. The supporting cast, like their characters, gets lost in the endless pile-up of double-crosses and revelations. When the final twist arrives, it lands with all the impact of a status update.

Vallan mistakes narrative density for depth, ending up as a thriller that’s more exhausting than thrilling. It’s the kind of film that makes us wish someone had murdered the plot instead.

Written by: Abhinav Subramanian