The first ever Malayalam film to be released on Netflix and the first to be released with English subtitles outside Kerala, “Grandmaster” is  based on the book The A.B.C Murders by Agatha Christie, which was already adapted by Unnikrishnan for the script of a TV series named “Black and White”.
IG (Inspector General) Chandrasekhar, a senior IPS officer who is also obsessed with chess, is the head of the newly created Metro Crime Stopper Cell in Kochi. Chandrasekhar arrests Jerome, a psychologically deviant man and rescues three girls he had kidnapped, but his ex-wife Deepthi who is a lawyer, manages to get Jerome sent to treatment in a psychiatric facility, rather than prison. It turns out that the three girls had been mocking Jerome, which had led to his actions of kidnapping them in the first place.
Chandrasekhar gets a congratulatory note from an anonymous man calling himself “Z” who challenges Chandrasekhar to figure out how he is going to bump off one target after the other. Chandrasekhar is forced to investigate a string of murders: coffee shop owner Alice, famous singer Beena Thomson and leading businesswoman Chandrika Narayanan. These murders follow a mysterious alphabetical pattern, and each victim also has a cross slit on their forehead. Around the same time, Chandrasekhar's daughter is preparing for a play under the lead of famous actor Mark Roshan. Soon, Chandrasekhar finds himself in a game more dangerous than he anticipated, both for him and his family.
The film starts in interesting fashion, introducing Chandra, as his friends call him, through his interactions with a journalist, highlighting his coolness and overall imposing persona in the best manner. The way he handles the first case, his interactions with his daughter and his efforts to get his wife back, while also trying to deal with a serial killer who targets him directly, create an intricate story that actually carries the movie for a large part of its duration.
Somewhere by the end of the first case, however, is where the problems of the movie begin. That fact that Mohanlal, a man in his 50s who is not exactly fit, is portrayed as a martial arts master, emerges as funny in the beginning, but eventually becomes ridiculous, particularly due the number of times the concept is presented on screen. In general, the action scenes are hyperbolic to say the least, and not in a comic-book like fashion, that would make them entertaining, but using loud music and intense editing to hide how bad the choreographies are instead. Particularly the last one, which features a tiger man as the ultimate villain, and the way Chandra saves the day, cannot even be described as ludicrous.
This misplaced hyperbole also extends to the overall writing, with the villains emerging as too weak for the impact they have in the story, the solving of the mysteries is illogical to say the least, and the twists completely unjustified. Even the chess elements seems completely out of place. Add to all that a number of unnecessary long, actual music video sequences, with the one of Roma Asrani who plays Beena obviously serving promotional purposes, and you end up with a film that does not justify its 130 minutes in any way.
That being said, “Grandmaster” has a few things going for it. Mohanlal's charisma as the protagonist Chandra is evident in every line he utters and every move he makes, with his performance being the only thing saving a rather badly written character, at least partially. Babu Antony as Victor Rosetti makes for an intriguing villain with his obsession with Christianity and overall ragtag appearance, while Roma Asrani's performance, even if out of context, is impressive.
Furthermore, Deepak Dev's hard rock tracks work quite well for the movie while Vinod Illampaly's cinematography is impressive on occasion, with the scenes in the church and the various fights being rather well captured, as much as the whole presence of Mohanlal. Manoj's editing implements a rather fast pace that succeeds in hiding a number of the movie's shortcomings.
“Grandmaster” has some things going on for it, but in general emerges as an effort filled with faults, that manage to relegate a rather expensive production to something that looks more like a soap opera instead of an action crime thriller.
