Grrr Review | An Utterly Forgettable Roaring Bore of a Film

A news heading can inspire filmmakers to create movies. It can be that germ of the idea which could eventually become an eventful film. Grrr, the new film directed by Jay K, who previously directed Ezra, is one such movie. Based on a true event that actually happened in the Trivandrum Zoo, this survival comedy is struggling to be funny. Rather than a few dialogues by Suraj Venjaramood during the struggle inside the cage, everything else about this lazily assembled comedy is forgettable.

Rejimon is our hero. He was this young entrepreneur who was in love with a girl whose father was a prominent politician. When the eloping plan of the couple met with a dead end, Rejimon got drunk and did something that nobody expected. He went inside the zoo and broke into the space of the lion. What we see in Grrr is the efforts of the authorities to get him back safely.

The news of one drunk guy sneaking into the cage of the lion was the inspiration and everything else in this movie is pure fiction. The problem is the fiction, which has no clarity about how it wants to present itself. In the beginning, one can see the director making an effort to give some personal stories to each character. But by the time the movie enters the second act, the zone is pretty slap-sticky. And when the film reaches the finale, the movie’s tone takes a U-Turn and again goes to this emotional sentimental space. The scripting elements they have taken to create this movie are far too familiar, and the lack of nuances and improvisation would make you wonder whether the scenes were written on the set.

Kunchacko Boban is very much playing a Kuchacko Boban character in this movie, and the only difference is that the makers have decided to make his character someone who has a significant age difference from his girlfriend. The acting effort feels more physical for him as Suraj’s character is constantly trying to calm him down. Suraj Venjaramood, on the other hand, provides some relief to the audience through his typical mumbling humor in those sequences where the duo is trying to escape from the lion. Anagha gets a forgettable part, and she has nothing much to do. The only silver lining, in my view, was the performance of Shruti Ramachandran, and I hope her performance in this movie will make some filmmakers offer her a humorous role. Rajesh Madhavan plays the hero’s sidekick in his typical style. Manju Pillai, Alencier, Shoby Thilakan, Senthil Krishna, Sibi K Thomas, etc., are the other names in the cast.

Good movies that take inspiration from a heading would do some research and will try to include less cliched stuff. The subplots, character details, etc., would work as layers that will strengthen the movie’s core. But clumsy, clueless movies like Grrr would assume the audience wants something for the sake of laughter, and rather than creating a story that feels compelling, it will go after moments, and in the case of Grrr, the only aim is to make every scene funny. The lack of effort to create something that is genuinely exciting exposes the hollowness of this movie, and in the second half, the cluelessness of the makers is pretty evident. The visual effects sequences featuring the lion are easily the worst in the portfolio of egg white vfx, who had previously done some phenomenal jobs in movies like Paalthu Jaanwar, Romancham, Thankam, etc.

Grrr feels pretty much like the makers had a scene order of what they wanted to shoot, and the rest of it was written on the set on the day of the shoot. The movie goes after all sorts of comedy to make the audience laugh, and in the end, when it tries to make everything look emotional the packaging crumbles. There is a Shooperada song just before the final scene in the movie, and the movie was so underwhelming that only a handful of people were there to watch that scene as others left the theater during that song.