Dose Review: A Medical Mystery That Forgets Its Most Powerful Idea

Rating : 2.5

— Surya Prakash Josyula

Dr. Prakash (Siju Wilson) works in a corporate hospital and loves his wife, Divya (Krisha Kurup), more than anything. She suffers from a serious illness, so he never leaves her alone at home and brings her to the hospital every day. Prakash also has a love story from his past. His former lover, Arundathi (Drishya Raghunath), works in the same hospital. Prakash has a good reputation there, while Arundathi’s husband, Peter, works in the media.

Meanwhile, patients in the hospital begin dying one after another. At first, the deaths appear to be normal. But later, there is suspicion that they are silent murders, as the patients die just when they seem to be recovering. This gives the hospital a bad name.

The police quietly begin investigating the case. Almost everyone becomes a suspect. Suspicion mainly falls on junior doctor Nikhil because he is a womanizer, and he is often seen around the patients when they die. But no one is able to identify the real killer.

As the patients under Prakash’s treatment continue to die, his situation becomes worse. Who is behind these murders? What is really happening inside the hospital? What does police officer Vivek (Ashwin Kumar), who secretly handles the investigation, discover? How does he finally identify the person responsible? To know the answers, you have to watch the movie.

Analysis

Psychological thrillers like this usually depend on a twist-based screenplay. The climax twist is expected to hold the entire film together. Another popular technique in thriller writing is Red Herring, where the audience is intentionally misled. But there is one important rule. The misdirection should feel like a natural part of the story. When people watch the movie for a second time, they should feel, “I misunderstood it. I missed those clues.” They should not feel that the director forced the audience in the wrong direction.

This movie also attempts something similar, and it is successful to a large extent. However, the biggest problem is the setup. The first thirty minutes feel slow and boring. The story takes a long time to get going. Until the first death happens, it feels like almost nothing is happening. At one point, you may even feel like stopping the movie. Songs, lengthy dialogues, slow narration, and too much character introduction make the mystery-building process tiring. They may be necessary for the story, but they are not always interesting for the audience.

Many characters and scenes seem to exist only to distract the audience. The nurses, junior doctors, the old love story, flashbacks, and montage sequences often feel less like part of the story and more like signs pointing at different suspects. Because of that, when the real truth is revealed in the climax, the reaction is not, “What a twist!” Instead, it feels more like, “Okay… so that’s what happened.” Having a good idea and presenting it through a strong screenplay are two completely different things.

One positive aspect is that the film never becomes loud. It does not depend on unnecessary action scenes or background music to create a shock every few minutes. That works in the movie’s favour.

Final Thought

Instead of playing with the audience’s mind like a strong psychological thriller, this film mostly keeps changing the list of suspects. There is a twist at the end, and that is the one thing most people are likely to remember after walking out of the movie.

Should You Watch It?

The unfamiliar cast may make the beginning feel a little slow, but the story gradually becomes engaging. Since the climax twist is difficult to predict, thriller lovers can give it a watch.

Where to Watch

The Telugu version of Dose is available on Amazon Prime Video, Lionsgate Play, and Aha.