A scene from ‘Thank you’
One may depict a group or even a community involved in a particular trade from the point of view of an outsider, or view them as one would from within. in Thank youImmersed in the world of small-time agents, workshop men and distributors in Thrissur’s gold industry, director Sahid Arafat and scriptwriter Shyam Pushkaran choose to do the latter. The song sequence during the opening credits – a montage of every activity in this industry, much of it operating under the radar – sets the tone for what’s in store.
It is a beautifully crafted sequence that showcases the precision work, the risk involved, the expansion of the business and the camaraderie between the key players. When Kannan (Vineeth Sreenivasan), who delivers finished gold to jewelers in various states, carefully ties an entire roll of paper filled with gold bangles around his waist – as a precautionary measure before delivery – alarming He feels the paths that he has to walk. It’s a path full of treachery and backstabbing possibilities Thank you is concerned with.
Muthu’s (Biju Menon) gold business depends on the easy charm of Kannan, with whom he has built up a wide network of contacts. The script is built around two incidents that happen during his gold run. The second incident, of Kannan going missing in Mumbai with a considerable amount of gold, drives the film. But we keep coming back to the seemingly minor first incident of Kannan, Muthu and their friend (Vineeth Thattil) landing in a police trap during their trip to Coimbatore. Aspects of his character, hitherto unknown, are revealed as we progress, but one important aspect of one of the characters is kept for last.
Thank you
Director: Shaheed Arafat
Cast: Vineeth Sreenivasan, Biju Menon, Girish Kulkarni, Aparna Balamurali
But despite what we know about them, we remain invested in their lives, almost as much as they are in gold, thanks to how they’re written. Women (especially Kannan’s wife played by Aparna Balamurali) however get underwritten roles, with only gold baron Ambika (Indira Prasad) getting a strong role. Actor Kochupremman, who passed away recently, had one of the most memorable lines in the film.
The film begins as a police procedural with the arrival of a team of Mumbai Police led by a capable officer (played brilliantly by Girish Kulkarni). The investigation, while focusing on the whodunit, is also about letting us into the intricacies of the business and new facets of the characters. Humor continues to emerge even amid the seriousness of interrogating and chasing down suspects, the narrative rarely loses its grip on us.
The expectations built through this near-stranglehold and an investigation into geographies can have their negatives, as the big reveal at the end can be less satisfying, depending on which way you look at it. Viewing this purely as an investigative thriller, what we get in the end may be a letdown, but as a character study of someone who shows the best parts of his life to those close to him , This one is a winner. But the journey to that point is masterfully handled, whichever way you look at it.
Thankam is now running in theaters