Officer on Duty

Jithu Ashraf's directorial debut, Officer on Duty, is a crime investigation thriller that revolves around various sexual as*aults, su*cides, and murders. Written by Shahi Kabir, the film starts off brilliantly, with an almost near-perfect first half that not only engages the audience but also delivers the thrill. However, while the second half still delivers, the introduction of commercial elements and a stretched screenplay prevent it from reaching its full potential. Jakes Bejoy once again delivers a brilliant score, and the music is commendable. The camerawork, editing, and sound design are also impressive.

Kunchacko Boban excels as the troubled yet diligent police officer, convincingly portraying a character disturbed by personal tragedy. Priyamani supports him well. The antagonist gang, led by Vishak Nair,does a good job, but at times, their portrayal becomes too over-the-top, veering into cliché territory. The rest of the cast performs decently. The action sequences are well-executed. The screenplay reveals the right information at the right time, though the commercial elements slightly detract from the impact. Overall,Officer on Duty is a very good thriller, though its second half follows a formulaic approach.

Nevertheless, definitely recommended.

OVERALL -6.5/10.

Movie that is unnecessarily dragged and full of unnecessary and unrealistic stunt sequences.

Poorly researched script, people who wrote it clearly don't understand drugs or social psychology and cognitive ability of drug users. Looks like the writers were just trying to take a dig on the Gen Z.

Lazy writing of characters with no grey elements. The moral compass of characters or their revenge arc does not make any sense.

Unnecessarily dragged, 3/4th of the movie could have been edited out. Unnecessary stunt scenes which could have easily been avoided. None of the cops seem to have guns in the movie.

Writers couldn't decide whether to make a suspense thriller or revenge story. As a result ended with nothing but garbage.

Ratings given for the movie do not make sense, absolutely not worth watching.

Wanna watch a movie that'll keep you with its thoughts for long nights? This movie is your destination. Sat with not much expectations but left the theatres with a whole lot of content , satisfaction and emotions.

It absolutely blew my mind with the flow of the storylines , how the dots were connected one by one. Not even a minute felt boring or long, the ending brought me to anxiousness and thrill as the scenes took twists and turns .

Covering one of the major issues and mixing it with emotions, drama, action and what not., made the movie "worth a watch".

Coming to the performance , saying I'm speechless would be a disregard. Even though I am short of words , I would say that their acting added the spice to the storyline which made it more gripping .

From the main lead to the villains , everyone served a huge meal of extraordinary performance .

From anger to sorrow , everyone played it in the best way possible.

Its a 10 for me , cuz that's all it has to get. If you are a crime thriller stan, its highly recommended ! Once you watch it , you will definitely relate to these words. Hats off to the filmmakers and the cast.

The first half of this is a great procedural thriller. Good attention to detail, very fast paced, logical, great score, cinematic. Then the Saw soundtrack gets plagiarised, and some flashbacks start happening (like those movies) that start stretching logic to breaking point. Throughout the second half, you'll be so distracted by various motives, and how certain characters would have achieved certain things (and found certain people, and why) that all the credibility of the first half starts draining fast. It was all just washing over me by the overlong climax.

It's a shame, because without addressing motive with the emotional intelligence of a ten year old, it could have been great (and forty minutes shorter). It's the same "ugh, really?" feeling I had in the last act of Spectre. It ends up turning the very real problem of child grooming and abuse into a really ignorant plot device.

Also, the divisive framing of these characters into 'villains' and 'hero' leaves a bad taste the more you think about what actually happened. The general idea could have been dealt with so much more intelligently (like The Last Of Us Part 2 for eg.).

The movie is overall engaging, especially the investigation track and the lead actor's performance. Kunchacko Boban portrays his character with a strong screen presence and depth.

However, one particular scene early in the film really stood out-in a negative way. When the hero hits a pregnant woman in the stomach, it immediately damages the audience's perception of his character. No matter how noble his actions are later, that one moment makes it difficult to fully root for him.....

It's a good watch for crime thriller fans, but I feel that scene could have been handled with more sensitivity.