Dark psycho thrillers are hard to conceive and equally difficult to execute. Directorial felicity will be tested to the hilt as more than the plot it is the narration that should hold the viewer in thrall. Young director Lal Junior who debuted with a typical new era comedy in 'Honey Bee',with lot of double entendres and a flurry of drinking binges,attempts a starkly different movie this time. 'Hi I am Tony' can be called an audacious attempt,but the moot question is that whether the desired impact has materialized.
A movie peopled with a handful of characters and basically a single location,'Hi I am Tony' begins with momentum. It takes imaginative extravaganze and skilful and optimum use of the minimal resources to deliver the thrill,that the film promises. Yes,the movie is all about Tony,a character that Lal Senior plays with inconsistence and a bit of repetitiveness. A mysterious man who barges into the flat of the newly married couple Sameer( Asif Ali) and Teena(Mia),he gets off the block well.
Having married against the wishes of their parents the couple elope to Bangalore and is helped by the character played by Biju Menon,who is a builder. A multi storeyed flat under construction,a fully furnished swanky model flat at the top floor,the newly wed couple could not have asked for more to celebrate their first night of togetherness. But the setting is also perfect for trouble to unfold. Just imagine a huge building with only two inhabitants,with torrential rain lashing.
Tony arrives inevitably like a bolt from the blue. A prototypical mystery man with a fear evoking look,mouthing weighty one liners,Tony's night out spoils the couple's dream night.The movie never prospers despite the best attempts to produce shock and awe with silence and sudden explosion of sound. Lal alternates between normal and hysteric and the viewer becomes keen to know what the real intention of the unwelcome guest is.
The script is plagued by a kind of inertness for most part as things just stagnate with little substantial happening. Seat edge moments are few and far between and the shock is mostly caused by the violent outbursts of Tony. Towards the climactic stages the film becomes haphazard with fistfights,blood and gore. The earth shattering revelation that should have come to resusticate the sinking movie proves elusive. A tame end to a thriller that seldom thrills is surely the proverbial last nail in the coffin.
'Hi I am Tony' needed a better actor to enact the protagonist,one felt. Lal has done characters with streaks of eccentricity many times over. His mannerisms as a criminally inclined man with psychic disturbances look repetitive. A sketchy characterisation by his son didnt help his cause either.Asif Ali tries his level best,but his performance proves only average for most parts. While Mia looks the part with her charming looks and subdued acting. Biju Menon plays the cameo role with little fuss. The propensity of the director to depend on adult jokes to evoke laughter reeks of a cavalier attitude to audience. It is as though such cringe inducing dialogues are an indication of some sort of perceived liberation.
Alby's frames do capture the dark and violent mood prevailing in the movie. Sound effects are really special while Deepak Dev does nothing special with a solo song or the BGM. 'Hi I am Tony',is a failed attempt,though Lal Junior tried his level best to deliver a thriller,that is not run of the mill.
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