Peace Review | Joju and Siddique Make This Uneven Dark Comedy an Engaging Watch

Peace, the new dark comedy directed by Sanfeer, is a quirky experiment that is uneven yet very engaging. In the initial portions of the film, the narrative isn’t that smooth, and you feel a forceful effort to look cool. But once the triggering moment happens, it manages to grab the attention of the audience, and even though the proceedings are a bit absurd, the fun element is there to hold your interest.

Carlos is this drug supplier who supplies marijuana to people, and he is in love with his long-time friend Jalaja. Carlos’s daughter Renuka is in love with her co-worker Gibran. The night Gibran tells Carlos about his love for Renu, the family decides to party hard. The following day when a drunk Gibran and Carlos go to drop Gibran’s friend at the railway station, something terrible happens accidentally and what we see in the movie is the consequences of that incident.

As I said, the initial moments are a bit wayward in terms of energy. It is the black comedy they have incorporated in writing, along with how everything is connected makes the premise interesting. The bit that clearly gets the audience is the moment when Carlos asks the team to act cool when the police catch them, and Joju’s performance in that sequence is hilarious. Post interval, you have Siddique’s character coming into the picture, and he, along with Joju, gives the absurd strategy of the gang a hilarious dimension. The ending of the film is a bit jarring as we were anticipating a proper conclusion to the whole thing.

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The script of the film by Safar Sanal and Ramesh Girija tries to create this connected loop. It is a familiar concept where we are laughing at the characters for landing in one trouble after the other. After the initial hiccups in blending characters into this plot, the screenplay manages to find a rhythm. To escape from the mess they are in, our men need money. And it is the ways in which they are getting that money that makes us laugh. The conviction level of the various strategies they apply is uneven. But humor covers up for a lot of the flaws in the script.

Joju George as Carlos was hilarious. As I already said, the way he panics when he sees the police in multiple instances in the movie will make you laugh out loud. Siddique, with his uber-cool dialogue rendering, was fun to watch. Asha Sarath gets to do a role that is different from the ones she usually plays. Late actor Anil Nedumangad plays the crucial role of inspector Dixon, and it will be interesting to see who will replace him if the announced sequel happens. Shalu Rahim, Aditi Ravi, Vijilesh, Mamukkoya, Remya Nambeesan, and Pauly Valsan are the other major names in the cast.

Structurally Peace is not a movie that is totally unfamiliar to us. The beats of the screenplay are very familiar. But the events that unfold when the characters are desperate for a solution and the performances that enhance the believability of these wacky imaginations make Peace a passable dark comedy film.