12th Man Movie Review: Mohanlal’s whodunit thriller is a slow burner

Director Jeethu Joseph’s 12th Man is a mystery thriller with Mohanlal’s Chandrashekhar headlining the investigation of a murder. The film is interesting in parts, but it gets bogged down by the duration.

Director Jeethu Joseph and Malayalam superstar Mohanlal, in the past, have treated the audience to out-of-the-world thrillers such as the Drishyam series. Now, the successful duo is back with yet another thriller titled 12th Man. Does this film live up to Drishyam or does it stand on its own?

11 friends head to a resort for a bachelor party at a hill station. Meanwhile, they have an uninvited guest. Chandrashekhar (Mohanlal) is an alcoholic who keeps annoying them by asking for liquor. At the end of the day, one of the eleven friends dies. Chandrasekhar is not just a drunkard, but a police officer, who steps up to investigate to find the killer. So, who's the killer?

Director Jeethu Joseph is a filmmaker who knows how to package a thriller. Be it Drishyam or 12th Man, he follows a pattern in storytelling. He slowly establishes the characters and the conflicts. In the final few stretches, he removes the knots one by one, which gives a high to the audience. But, did 12th Man work as well as Drishyam did? The answer would be no. At this age, films with a duration of 2 hours and 43 minutes will test the patience of the audience, especially for a flick that has been released on an OTT platform.

With 12th Man, Jeethu spends too much time establishing the characters and it feels like an eternity when the actual conflict arrives. But once it does, there’s no stopping. It is interesting to see Mohanlal in supreme form while conducting the investigation. The way the story moves back and forth creates a great impact.

Here's the trailer of 12th Man:

However, 12th Man is not a film without flaws. The thriller is bogged down by its uneven pacing and slow-paced screenplay. Some of the conflicts that arise are too convenient. For example, Mohanlal sets up a roundtable for the investigation and asks everyone to read out their messages loud and speak on loudspeaker. Just when he is done with his speech, a phone rings. It’s like they waited for him to finish his monologue.

If you expect 12th Man to be an out-and-out Mohanlal film, then you’d be disappointed. He comes in the latter part of the story and convincingly pulls off the role with ease. Unni Mukundan, Saju Kurup, Sshivada, Anu Sree, Anu Sithara, Anu Mohan and several others played their parts well.