Stephen movie review: What do you do when a guy walks into a cop station confessing he has killed nine women? Nothing about the sentence is a spoiler because there’s nothing Stephen (Gomathi Shankar) hides when it comes to the horribly casual ways in which he says he has killed them: this is how I stabbed, this is where I stabbed, he tells the flabbergasted policemen, who can’t understand how this man, who looks like your average person off the street, can be a cold-blooded murderer.
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What makes you take a second look at Gomathi Shankar, who plays Stephen, is the slight-very slight–off-kilter look he occasionally gets, not specifically when he is sitting across from the psychiatrist (Smruthi Venkat) assigned to his case, but generally. Blink and you will miss it.
But there’s no missing the fact that Stephen, who may or may not be as unhinged as he makes himself out to be, had an abusive childhood. We are shown not just his father (Kuberan) raising his hand on his mother (Vijayashree); we are shown how even the mother becomes the aggressor. The flashback is amongst the better parts of the film, because of its vivid depiction of how violence can originate anywhere, with anyone, but the consequences can be widespread and far-reaching.
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Written, directed and produced by Mithun Balaji, the film looks at the impact of residual trauma, stored in some part of us, which comes out when we least expect it, in ways which are completely unexpected. For a film like this, then, to be able to predict what will happen much before its actually does, isn’t the best look. Also, the portions between the investigating cop and the shrink, which reiterate and explain what we’ve already seen, becomes an extra layer which just extends the run time.
What rescues it, and brings it back to its initial sharpness, is the last act with all its revelatory strands. Smartly shot and enacted, the portion is chilling, just the way it ought to be in a film like this. It leaves us with a scarily persuasive thought: what if a person is actually like this from the inside, without falling back on the usual hook of how their past has shaped them. You only know how to die, asks Stephen, do you know how to live?
Good question.
Stephen movie cast: Gomathi Shankar, Michael Thangadurai, Smruthi Venkat, Kuberan, Vijayashree
Stephen movie director: Mithun Balaji
Stephen move rating: Two and a half stars
