Sherlock Toms

Sherlock Toms is not a suspense thriller but an animated drama that crosses the line of exaggeration at all levels. Biju Menon plays a slacker of an IRS officer with wife problems who blames his destiny for his incompetence and inability to solve cases. He then uses smoke and mirrors to give it one more try and thereby takes the plot to a level that is unprecedented in Malayalam cinema. Although the film has 5 jokes in total (thanks to Raffi) that are actually funny, Sherlock Toms builds itself on a story that cannot be justified in any way. Watching this 150-minute long, long-winded, unenterprising drama is like selling your soul to the devil and not making a great deal out of it. With annoying characters played without a pinch of salt by more annoying actors like Srinda Ashab and Mia George, the film is an all-time low for Shafi who gave us the funnier Two Countries in 2015. It should be noted that Shafi also contributed in the screenplay, and clearly it's not his forte. Even Menon cannot save the film from imploding and spiraling into a pit that has the likes of Achayans, Ramante Edanthottam, Velipadinte Pusthakam, and Comrade in America in 2017 itself. Sherlock Toms is an outrageous film that deserves to be shunned for its basic lack of entertainment. No excuses. TN.

A rip-off from MAN ON A LEDGE which in is a remake of FOURTEEN HOURS - 1951

I was looking for a comedy to watch pre bedtime and found Sherlock Toms on Hotstar in orig. Malayalam with English subs. It was a good choice with quite a few hilarious moments.

The film starts out with a realistic flashback of a schoolboy aptly nicknamed Sherlock Thomas by his class mates and teachers thanks to his obsession with Sherlock Holmes novels and methodology of investigation which take precedence over everything else for Thomas who one fine day gets rusticated from school and ends up working as child labour at a foundry. Eventually he becomes an IRS officer and the somewhat slap stick plot begins from here. Though it is not a mindless slapstick, but replete with healthy dollops of humour and some really fall of your chair with laughter moments. No spoilers for those who havent watched except to say dont miss the extra scenes after the final credits as these are really funny.

Biju Menon is great as Thomas IRS :-))) and Srinda as the quintessential archetypal shrew of a woman is perfect as his wife. Likewise the other characters who are his drinking buddies, the advocate, the police etc.

Summary: A Good Comedy Worth Watching

1st half is good. Lots of comedy. But second half is like making the viewers dumb. Shame

Sachy's screenplays have deteriorated over time due to their excessive fixation on the acts of drinking, swearing and shunning of the female gender. This ragbag of a screenplay is in fact, credited to three people: Shafi, Sachy and Najeem Koya. Knowing their respective filmographies, seeking logic in a film like 'Sherlock Toms' would be equivalent to crime.

So, the first half is all about the evolution of Thomas (Biju Menon in his natural self for the umpteenth time) a.k.a Sherlock Toms from childhood to adulthood, plodding forward with a few stale jokes and plenty of 'gang-of-men drinking' scenes. It's post interval that the story comes to a standstill and revolves around a single location (a star hotel) where Toms has chosen to jump off from and commit suicide, after dealing with a disastrous sequence of events - his job is in shambles, his equation with his wife (Srinda) is terrible, the bond with his plebeian circle of friends weakened and so on.

There's an attempt to churn comedy out of every given situation, leading to awkwardness-galore. Hence, we have the finance company owner played by Vijayaraghavan running around shirtless trying to take a dump, the fire-force officer played by Suresh Krishna tending to his infant over the phone, the character played by Nelson running bets with random people on whether Toms will jump off the balcony or not - the list of absurdities is too long. Srinda gets the role that Mia played in 'Chettayees', writing off her husband both privately and publicly. Mia is apparently the 'hot reporter' who arrives on scene to negotiate with Tom. She barely gets to leave an impression on the whole.

The climax is the weakest part of the film. The manner in which the cops look astounded by the 'big reveal' is unintentionally funny. This is not the 'suspense thriller' you sat your butt down for. This is just a shoddy film that makes you scratch your forehead way too often.

Verdict: Bad. Bad. Bad!