The Pet Detective movie review: A moderately funny comic book caper with template characters

Movie: Pet Detective

Cast: Sharaf U Dheen, Anupama Parameswaran, Vinay Forrt, Vijayaraghavan, Joemon Jyothir

Direction: Praneesh Vijayan

Plot: An unsuccessful detective takes on the case of a missing pet, but while pursuing the case, he becomes embroiled in a larger game involving multiple players.

Duration: 118 minutes

A kidnapped girl, a lost dog, stolen exotic fish, a feared Mexican kingpin and some little guys, a psychopath, an incompetent police officer, and a pet detective. This basic checklist will be needed to keep track of large numbers of congested subgraphs. Pet DetectiveIt was directed by debutant Praneesh Vijayan.

The authors seem aware of this rather confusing mix; They have one of the characters periodically narrate the series of events up to that point, just so that no one gets lost. But still, sometimes it’s fun to get lost in a world where things don’t get serious after a point, just like in comics. Clearly, this is the area the filmmakers are targeting, where even a Mafia boss doesn’t seem too dangerous, but becomes the butt of ridicule from time to time. The film tries to capture this comic energy with its staging, editing patterns and exaggerated performances. But for a movie of this nature, the jokes that work well are a handful.

Tony Jose Alula’s (Sharaf U Dheen) detective agency is an inheritance from his father. This is also a way to impress his girlfriend Kaikeyi (Anupama Parameswaran), but he has failed so far as he has not been able to solve any cases yet. The loss of a pet turns out to be a blessing, prompting him to step into the role of an Ace Ventura-style pet detective. However, while pursuing this case, he falls into a larger game involving multiple players. In the same case, a police officer (Vinay Forrt) who follows her closely also wants to impress Kaikeyi.

Several parallel events

The script, which the director co-wrote with Jai Vishnu, draws on some common elements of comic capers along with various parallel plots and interesting characters. However, except for some characters, many of them do not even come to our mind due to lack of characterization and writing. While even a strong actor like Vinayakan gets a largely forgettable and pointless role, Sharaf U Dheen, Anupama and Vijayaraghavan manage to make some impact. Some of the confusion in the multi-threaded plot comes from a lack of clarity in characterization.

There are also interesting parts of the script, such as the detective’s old school friends being brought into the plot at various points, and each of them has a backstory. One of the high points of the film is definitely the thrilling encounter in a theme park where all the characters come together for a spectacular mash-up reminiscent of the good old Priyadarshan films. Although parts of the long sequence, especially the scenes involving multiple rides, make one wonder if this is also an advertisement for the theme park, it gives the film one final push to enter the territory of average movies.

‘Animal Detective’ is only moderately successful in its ambitious attempt to immerse us in a comic book universe.