2022 is coming to a close & over the course of this year, we have had numerous big banner releases of which some has made the box office gone bonkers. Well in terms of the cast & crew assembled, Shaji Kailas's "Kaapa" belongs to the same category & would be hoping to garner similar response from the audience. It was also the cynosure of attention as it was bankrolled by the Fefka Writer's Union with the noble intention of improving the livelihood of the writers in need. The trailer gave the impression of it being a gangster flick & hence it was curious to know as to how it manages to be distinct compared to similar flicks in the past.
After the roaring success of "Kaduva", Shaji Kailas was back in the hot seat with Prithvi yet again in the lead. Apparently, it was supposed to have been helmed by Venu; who subsequently backed out due to creative differences. The movie is actually a cinematic adaptation of G R Indugopan's 'Sankhumukhi' & is about the gangster gangs that thrived in Trivandrum. In order to curb the violence that was unleashed, the State Government had introduced the KAAPA list & incidentally it also had Binu's name in it (Anna Ben) much to the surprise of her husband, Anand (Asif Ali); as they were IT professionals who had nothing to do with it. Anand reaches out for help to have his wife's name removed & in the process, he gets to know about the underbelly of the city.
Since I have not read any of Indugopan's novels, I cant quite comment as to whether the makers have been able to do justice to it. However, one thing that certainly stood out was the manner in which the story is unfolded & the importance given to all the major characters. Unlike other similar movies, the female characters do get mentioned & the audience is given the feel of their importance. But it was not conveyed convincingly on the screen except in the climax. With regard to the whole movie, except for a couple of sequences I didnt find anything unique as such though I didnt feel that it tested our patience. On the technical side, Jomon's visuals were fine while Jakes Bejoy & Dawn Vincent's BGM felt more like noise rather than an impactful feel. Another odd thing that I felt was the makeup of Prithvi when his past was shown as it looked rather odd & artificial (kind of reminded me of "Anwar")
Coming to performances, all of them have done a fine job though it wasnt as if they were provided difficult roles also. The pick among the lot for me was Dileesh Pothan who was impressive as Latheef while Prithvi pulled off the mass scenes with flair. Asif is the one who takes the story forward & was spot on as Anand while Jagadeesh did his part aptly. Coming to Aparna & Anna, both were fine though the former had comparatively more scope to perform (even then I felt it was too minimal).
Verdict: It should certainly bring in the big bucks courtesy of the holiday season & also because it is a reasonably well packaged movie. Does it offer anything that we didn't expect? Well not exactly, but it still manages to keep us engaged for most parts. In short, give it a try!!!
Rating: 2.5/5
Regards...Ben
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