Synccinema Quickie - HIT - The First Case

HIT- The First Case – With its Commendable Story and genre def(in/y)ing choices, HIT becomes a landmark for Cop Thrillers in Telugu Cinema.

Thrillers, at a bird’s eye view, have a broader scope of cinema, especially when it comes to its texture of narrative structure. Telugu Cinema had a gleeful shift in its movies in the last decade, especially, when it comes to thrillers, thanks to budding filmmakers and/or scriptwriters like Adivi Sesh, Chandoo Moondeti (Karthikeya(2014) fame) etc. The thrillers in this fresh era have been a step ahead and strictly followed the rule that defines their genre “Show! Don’t tell”, leading to a frequent fine-tuning of this milieu and adding an extra layer of storytelling (and freshness). 

HIT- The First Case, one of the first Cop Thrillers in this decade, again breaks the norms of a quintessential thriller and aces it’s part in challenging the audience of what to expect and whatnot. Firstly, it breaks the 3 Act structure shifting its focus partly to the Protagonist’s (Vikram) psyche. It kicks starts with a horrifying Montage of Hero’s past, with a vicious murder being committed and Vikram being caged (both Literally and Figuratively) to witness this crime. This incident gets embedded so deep creating Panic Attacks and health Issues.

 The contrast here being stressed is that the mainstream Cop- Thrillers have a case to solve, a police who has to race against time and by hook or crook he/she does catch the criminal and in the process, as an audience, we also are taken deep into the Antagonist’s mindset for the heinous felony( eg. – Ratsasan(2018), Psycho(2020)).  Here we get hinted into Vikram’s disturbed past lingering tension in his mind, at present, becoming a hurdle to solve the case. The movie boldly leaves away from the killer or even the crime and is meant to be firming its concentration on Vikram’s crashing world. It even ends with Vikram in the picture at gun-point( and Yes, there is HIT- The second case being a continuum of this cliff-hanger).

Director and Writer, Dr Sailesh Kolanu said in an interview(click on the words in yellow to be directed towards the related link) that this movie “Informative Thriller”, this is again the level upping aspect in the Thriller Genre. The movie effectively plays with its choice of perspective and the authentic Police-Procedural way of solving crime. The latter element would’ve turned out to be bland if we didn’t have the former perspective juggernaut, the writing ensured that they go hand in hand. The past hold’s on even though the present investigation hits a dead end, propelling the events now.


Love Thrillers? -  Here's a review on One of the Finest Thrillers in Indian Cinema - 16 Every Detail  Counts
(Click on 16....Counts to be directed towards the review)

Also Read - #SCSuggests - Oscar Series -  1917

Next are the detailing and Crime at the blink of an eye. Crime will happen in this section of thrillers and you expect to see that on-screen or at least the aftermath. But, HIT never even screens its crime for us, you only see the mounting agitation of “Something going Wrong and can go Wrong quickly” and then cut. The slow-burn acts as a hook to depict an abstract sense of Crime has happened, defining or defying the rule mentioned earlier- “Show! Don’t tell”. This element is the best choice that the movie makes inorder to organically etch the interest in the audience. As for the Detailing, this should be spoiler-free, as it is enjoyed best when you watch, one detail that can be opened up is the cigarette lighter that Vikram uses. (you can see it in the Sneak Peek on Youtube)

For all this to happen perfectly, the technical departments, especially Editor Garry BH’s cut, Vivek Sagar’s Background Score and S. Manikandan’s Cinematography become a backbone to this movie. The cross-cut scenes, the Indy buzzing bgm , Heated and layered cinematography multiply the movie’s impact. Notably, the cinematography, which signifies many nuances of complexity and darkness. Kudos to Nani and his team for producing and bringing this movie to Telugu Cinema along with my favourite Awe.

HIT – The First Case, has a life of its own and positively, shouldn’t be complained of the tropes a General Thriller would have. It does lose it’s Sucker Punch in disclosing the motive and slightly off Dialogue Delivery of Vishwak Sen, but all that can be forgiven for the commendable paradigm shift made by its story in the Cop Thriller milieu.