Malayalam dark comedy thriller “Pravinkoodu Shappu” marks an eye-catching debut for writer-director Sreeraj Sreenivasan. Set in the pastoral landscape of rural Kerala, this whodunit niftily works with Agatha Christie-esque twists with a fair amount of absurd humor. Starting right from the opening scene, the film revels in its ambitiously eccentric setup and crafts a fairly engrossing, if not entirely original, mystery. And it does that with style, with some fantastic action pieces that show the potential of the debuting filmmaker.

The script, written by Sreenivasan, replaces the British Cottagecore mood of Christie’s stories with the crass and brash vibe of a village toddy (local palm wine) shop. Sreenivasan takes a passionately meticulous care in setting up the murder in the preposterously hilarious liquor shop setup, where drunken machismo is just a shove away. He is so fascinated by the absurdity of the murder premise that he finds excuses...