Adam Joan review : A watchable thriller

The emotional arch and sensibilities of all the characters in Jinu Abraham’s Adam Joan are understandable. That is possibly the one thing that makes this thriller a watchable one. Made as a thriller with emotional elements, Adam Joan has weak points in being thrilling. But with the help of real emotions, this movie becomes a passable one.

Adam, a planter in Kerala decided to pay a visit to his brother in Scotland. His brother is living there along with his wife and Adam’s mother. Before Adam could reach there, his mother was shot dead by a gang who kidnapped Adam’s brother’s daughter. As police investigations couldn’t find the girl, Adam decided to do the investigation by himself. That particular investigation is the core of Adam Joan.

It’s a movie that came with the “based on real incidents” tag. And once you watch it you can definitely feel that a lot has got added to the element that inspired the makers. The earlier portions of the film have this flashback sequence to give us an idea of why this girl is important to Adam. The amount of melodrama in the whole narrative is one reason why we don’t feel the movie as a quality thriller. There is no real surprise in the events that happen in Adam’s investigation. Jinu’s characters have digestible emotional dilemmas, but as a maker, he can’t keep things exciting for that 163 minutes of runtime.

The character of Adam is in that emotionally vulnerable state throughout the film and Prithviraj in his usual hefty style is a convincing choice to play the role. Mishti has very minimal screen space in this film. Bhavana and Lena were good in their characters and so were Narain and Rahul Madhav. Tamil/Telugu actor Madhusudhan Rao has played a crucial character in this film.

This is Jinu Abraham’s third script and debut directorial venture. When compared to the making of his other scripts he has definitely managed to make this movie look better than them. Jinu has this obsession for visual luxury it seems. From the grills and headlights of costly motor vehicles to exotic locations of Scotland, DOP Jith Damodar and Jinu Abraham try to make the visuals extremely lush. The dialogues were dramatic. The climax fight needed some tightening on the edit table. Deepak Dev’s music was impressive.

The thriller aspect of Adam Joan isn’t completely satisfying. But the emotional bond of the movie has enough strength to make it a watchable one. It is one of those “could have been better” movies.