REVIEW: DIARY – Fascinating plot but execution was a complete failure -

It doesn’t really dawn on you how fantastic of a story it is on the papers until the last 30 minutes or so. If this had been narrated, anyone would have responded “Yes, let’s do it.” Unfortunately, the viewer becomes impatient due to a number of forced necessary cliches for Tamil cinema, especially in the first half.

A group of police trainees are given a practical assignment to choose any unresolved cases from the past, and fate leads “Varadhan” (Arulnithi) to a puzzling case that needs to be solved. The validity of this concept maybe under scrutiny, and what comes next is a string of cornball moments that reveal the filmmakers’ lack of confidence in implementing what is written as is.

Pavithrah Marimuthu as ‘Pavithra’ – Even the cops are frightened of her breathtaking entrance scene as a sub-inspector. However, it once again becomes a Hero’s world; only he can call her beautiful and start singing a love song in the first scene, make a strong woman weaker and ultimately turns himself into a male saviour. It’s high time you treat the female characters differently. A few characters’ performers were forcedly chosen to introduce humour that has nothing to do with the plot or the setting.

For example, if Chams is the jeep driver, you cannot disregard him because you are the hero or heroine and take him for granted just because he is funny. More research should be done rather than relying just on perception when trying to portray a community, in my opinion.

The love, wedding, song, emotions, dialogues, and backstories of each character in the bus sequences are disjointed and appear contrived. Few people contributed significantly on screen, Arulnithi did his work at his favourite place to be comfortable. Only a few of Shara’s one-liners delivered inside the bus seemed to work somewhat. The film really hits its stride when the core plot is established, and mysteries start to come to light one by one. What we see next comes as a surprise after what we saw previously. More clarity and intriguing knots emerge, and we eventually discover that this concept is unique to Tamil cinema.

Diary had all the elements for a sensational thriller if it had been a serious and an honest attempt.