Edakkad Battalion 06 is a film whose intentions are unquestionably good. A film that is centered around a military officer who eventually turns out to be an inspiration for a bunch of corrupted youths. But the film misses translating the idea on screen due to less-interesting screenwriting. Directed by Swapnesh K. Nair, the film is produced by Dr. Shrikanth Bhasi, Thomas Joseph Pattathanam and Jayant Mammen.

Edakkad.. revolves around Captain Shafeeq (played by Tovino Thomas), who returns to his hometown from his Kashmir (the place he’s stationed in), to celebrate a family festival. As days pass by, Shafeeq uncovers the dark underbelly of drug-addicted youth and peddlers when his friend’s sister gets admitted to the hospital. 

Edakkad’s first half establishes Shafeeq’s family and surroundings in an interesting way. There is a certain sense of idyll in the proceedings when we see the portrayal of Shafeeq’s familial relationships. One such instance is the stretch when Shafeeq’s father, a cook who specializes in making biryani, laments about his fading skills when his dish gets burnt. Another scene involves an interaction between Shafeeq and his NCC trainer (Salim Kumar). Even the patriotic angle is shown with a lot of restraint and not in a chest-thumping, jingoistic way (Tovino Thomas shines in such sequences, where a certain amount of macho-ness is needed )

Though they are nice instances, it feels like they don't add more value to the overall scheme of things, other than momentary engagement. Hence the first half feels like a disjointed collection of moments that don’t lead to anything significant. The interval block, despite being well shot, brings little momentum.

The narrative of the second half meanders completely when Shafeeq gets out of the picture and a group of junkies whom he antagonized tries to take revenge. The villains of the film are ineffective and appear to be less threatening (they try to sabotage Shafeeq’s marriage alliance with a badly photoshopped picture). As the film nears to an end, one can’t help but think what if the protagonists were one of the teenagers, as they are the only ones who have a journey in this whole film. It’s they who come of age and have a full-fledged character arc.

But Edakkad.. invests an undue amount of time on Shafeeq, whose presence is overstretched by a perfunctory romantic track (Samyuktha Menon plays Shafeeq’s love interest) and a collection of heroic scenes. The writing, by P. Balachandran, despite being politically correct and well-minded, misses connecting the standalone moments into a cohesive plot. Sinu Sidharth’s cinematography works at places where the scenes require a stark mood while Kailas Menon’s songs are fine, though their placement is questionable. Overall, Edakkad Battalion 06 is a well-meaning, yet underwhelming fare.