It’s A Medical Miracle has a promising superhero premise and good performances, but an uneven screenplay ultimately squanders its potential, sighs Sreeju Sudhakaran.
IMAGE: Sangeeth Prathap in It’s A Medical Miracle.
Key Points
- It’s A Medical Miracle features Ruben, who gains amplified hearing after waking from a two-year coma, a premise with exciting potential for a superhero narrative.
- Despite an intriguing setup and strong initial scenes showcasing Ruben’s powers, the screenplay suffers from tonal confusion, shifting abruptly from feel-good to dark and disturbing.
- While performances by Sangeeth Prathap and Sharaf U Dheen are commendable, the film ultimately fails to capitalise on its promising concept, resulting in a missed opportunity.
It’s A Medical Miracle arrives just weeks after another English-titled Malayalam film where its protagonist gains a super-ability following a road accident. Unfortunately, it shares another, less flattering trait with that film: An intriguing superhero premise squandered by a tonally confused screenplay.
It seems, after Minnal Murali and Lokah, the minnal is not striking thrice for Malayalam cinema when it comes to super-powered heroes.
Accident Victim Turns ‘Superhero’
Ruben (Sangeeth Prathap) suffers an accident and lies in a coma for two years. Just as his family considers euthanising him to end his suffering, a ‘medical miracle’ awakens him. But his new lease on life comes with a strange consequence: His hearing is now amplified multifold.
Strangely, we never see him seek a doctor’s opinion for his condition, nor does his family seem remotely aware of the issue.
You might say I am nitpicking, but if I really want to nitpick, I would point out how Ruben walks around the hospital right after waking from a two-year coma. No disuse atrophy, eh?
Anyway, after returning to his normal life, Ruben sets out to find Susanna (Akhila Bhargavan). She is the nurse who cared for him and whom he developed a crush on despite his comatose state. She was also inadvertently responsible for his awakening and his newfound perceptive hearing.
But instead of approaching her directly to thank her for her service, Ruben chooses to find a job at an eatery right next to her house. Only one character questions this creepy behaviour, but that is immediately forgotten.
Meanwhile, a masked person kidnaps a minister’s daughter and dumps her in a manhole, from which she escapes. A task force is set up to catch the culprit, and the minister places Suraj (Sharaf U Dheen), a DANSAF constable, on the squad, much to the annoyance of the other members.
Suraj and Ruben eventually end up as friends. Ruben also uses his abilities to save Susanna from becoming the kidnapper’s next victim, and the two strike up a romance.
Things go well until the kidnapper, who now holds a major grudge against Ruben, strikes again and sends him down a deep, dark rabbit hole.
A Creative Marriage
It’s A Medical Miracle is directed by Shyamin Gireesh, who previously helmed the Karikku series Rock Paper Scissors and Samarthya Shastram. Actress Nileen Sandra, who was part of those shows and penned them as well, wrote the screenplay of this movie. She also plays Ancy, the heroine’s elder sister.
I was unaware of this, but thanks to the ‘thank you’ note at the beginning of the movie, I found out the director and writer are a married couple. Kinda nice to see a couple bring their combined creative energies into a movie.
What they have procured here is an idea brimming with exciting potential. You have a hero who is basically Daredevil with eyesight, just minus the tragic backstory and martial arts skills.
The sequences where Ruben comes to terms with how to focus and filter what he needs to hear are handled with interesting visual choices and fitting sound editing.
After meeting Suraj, Ruben figuring out how to use his super-hearing to help the cop find a kidnapped victim is a nicely executed scene. It sets the movie up for that feel-good, street-superhero vibe Minnal Murali once scored so well. Even Ruben’s rescue of Susanna at her house is a genuinely good, thrilling moment.
Fresh off last week’s Pradhama Drishtiya Kuttakkar, Composer Mujeeb Majeed once again delivers a moody score that accentuates the protagonist’s continual psychological grasp of his powers and environment.
From Superhero Fun To Disturbing Drama
Ruben’s nemesis is a psychopath who takes severe offence at the slightest insult, exacting revenge by attacking those closest to his targets. Just when I began to doubt the identity of this masked villain, the movie pulls a big surprise by revealing who it is quite early on.
This places the film in an interesting spot, shifting away from the usual Sherlock and Watson template where they chase an unidentified criminal; in this case, Sherlock possessing super-hearing and Watson being a suppressed government employee and single dad.
So what goes wrong? The movie gives the distinct impression of being a feel-good ‘superhero’ film, only to violently pull the rug out from under you by going way too dark and disturbing in the second half.
And it is not even a good rug pull.
This sequence involves a brutal sexual assault with a mop, making me strongly recall a similar, notorious scene in the Netflix show 13 Reasons Why.
It is perfectly fine to establish your antagonist as a disturbed individual, but going to this extreme for revenge feels like an unnecessary overreach by the makers. This feels even more needlessly perturbing when such a drastic tonal shift was never even teased beforehand.
I appreciate the actors’ performances post that scene and their depiction of processing their severe trauma. But it is the kind of scene that feels shocking purely for the sake of it, killing the vibe of what came before. Unfortunately, the movie does not even try to resurrect its lost goodwill after that.
Illogical Character Decisions
It is not just the inclusion of that specific scene that makes It’s A Medical Miracle a squandered effort. The core writing simply does not justify the onscreen events with real sense or logic in places. There are times when characters act a certain way not because the situation demands it, but simply because the screenplay instructs them to.
The party sequence where Ruben keeps pulling the villain’s leg and inadvertently earns his wrath is a prime example. Ruben comes off as quite a bully here, which completely betrays how he was presented earlier. It is a setup forced by the script rather than demanded by the situation.
This even extends to characters acting incredibly irrationally without any underlying logic.
I do not expect characters in the movies to always act reasonably, but ignoring the most valid, obvious idea sitting right in front of them is just dumb. For instance, when Suraj’s task force realises Ruben possesses this super-hearing ability, not a single one of them thinks to use his services, even unofficially, to catch their criminal.
Or how they simply cannot figure out the identity of the kidnapper or even suspect him, despite his clear links to the people involved in two of the three active cases they are handling.
Even after that highly disturbing sequence in the second half, the victimised character outright refuses to go to the hospital. The only explanation provided is a fear of ridicule. Why would the people who came to the rescue even listen to that request, given how grievously injured the victim visibly is?
When Ruben finally figures out who the villain is and gets enough proof of his crimes, he goes to confront and needle him before the cops even arrive. I assumed he had some clever hidden plan, but no, all he brought was his smite. As you can easily guess, it goes horribly wrong and brings in more needless drama.
Again, it is okay for characters to act irrationally when that behaviour is validated by sensible writing. That is simply not the case here.
The climax, where Ruben uses his sonic abilities to pinpoint where the villain and his latest victim are hiding, is certainly of the varied stuff. However, it gets a bit too stretched out in the overly ‘experimental’ visual manner used to show his powers at work.
Good Performances
The performances are mostly fine. Sangeeth Prathap conveys Ruben’s jovial nature and his struggle with his new ability with a solid balance. I was actually far more impressed with him in the second half, where his character takes on a much heavier dramatic shade.
Sharaf U Dheen also delivers well in a complicated character role. Akhila Bhargavan, reuniting with Sangeeth after Premalu, is charming. She is particularly good in the scene where she confronts Ruben for ignoring her. Yet, it cannot be denied that she is boxed tightly into a classic damsel-in-distress role, constantly at the receiving end of the villain’s cruelties and perpetually in need of a rescue.
It’s A Medical Miracle could have been a fun, inventive superhero thriller, but uneven writing and an uncalled-for, dark tonal shift squander its potential.
It’s A Medical Miracle Review Rediff Rating:
