Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya — A refreshing murder mystery
Storyline: Agent Sai acts like a pretentious know-it-all sleuth who is capable of solving the most complicated mysteries, until he becomes a part of one when he decides to accept a case by a mysterious old man. He uses humor and positive attitude, and lots of hustle to try and launch his detective agency until he gets this new case.
The above storyline sounds familiar and this is where the familiarity with the premise of this movie ends. Everything else is fresh and entertaining. My favorite part in the movie is the professional relationship between Agent Sai and Sneha (his assistant). She is neither a love interest nor dumb or helpless. She is shown as his apprentice who gives many valuable inputs throughout the movie and also assists the Agent in solving the case as needed, even by doing overtime as she points out in one conversation.
The other favorite part is obviously the mystery behind the dead bodies found at the railway tracks. The suspense is so airtight that you’ll never guess the reason for dead bodies or who is the criminal. Through uncovering the reason behind the murders, this movie also gives a very important social message without being preachy.
I also liked that there’s no unnecessary songs or violence in this Indian movie and drama is also added only when needed — A very well balanced story. Kudos to the creators for resisting the temptation to add the usual ingredients of entertainment that the Indian audiences enjoy, to create something new and easily digestible.
Agent Sai as a detective is shown as a normal guy who is passionate about solving mysteries. He isn’t shown as gifted, mysterious, or specifically trained to be a detective, as his role-model Sherlock (whom he refers to a lot in the movie) but uses common sense and logic based on available evidence to solve the mystery.
This movie definitely deserves a sequel.
I rate this movie 9/10 only because this movie doesn’t answer one question about the detective’s life that I am curious to know. Hopefully they will reveal it in the sequel.
Kudos to Naveen Polishetty and other members of cast and crew to create their excellent suspense thriller.
The only other good detective suspense thriller made in India recently that comes to mind is Byomkesh Bakshi starring Sushant Singh Rajput.
Fun fact: both Naveen and Sushant starred recently in the 2019 movie Chhichhore that won the National award for best Hindi movie.
