Vallamai

Red herrings register better when the narration allows them to emerge organically. In Vallamai, however, they lack real narrative purpose. The suspects' behaviour—both before and after the incident—fails to generate any ambiguity. They walk into every scene with ‘mere distraction’ written all over them. Vallamai, to sum up, leaves much to be desired, especially after showing promise in the early scenes. The film falters by pushing the emotionally healthy responses of the victim and her family to an implausible extreme. The screenplay fails to craft a humanistic arc for its leads, and this shortcoming is only worsened by a poorly conceived revenge track. What could have been a moving vigilante drama ends up becoming an unconvincing investigative thriller. Films that remain flat throughout are easier to forgive than ones like this—which tease glimmers of hope, only to squander them repeatedly.