When was the last time did Malayalam movie had an out & out mass action entertainer? Hmm...well it's been quite a while or we can rather say that the taste of the audience has changed with the times & hence the template of the 90s would obviously come across as rather out dated unless executed sensibly. Well Shaji Kailas's "Kaduva" brought back memories of his hit flicks of that era & to be frank, it did seem like a decent effort on screen. It would be fair to admit that many of us do have double standards when we watch mass entertainers from Tamil or Telugu as we intend to celebrate it, while the ones from our industry are usually slammed (though more often than not, that is coz of inferior execution). So did "Kaduva" meet the same fate???
Kaduvakunnel Kuriyachen (Prithiviraj) was an affluent businessman based in Pala who was well known in the region for his no nonsense attitude. It was also home to IG Joseph Chandy (Vivek Oberoi) who was politically well connected and the movie is basically about the ego clash between these two individuals. Interestingly, it began over the donation of a piano by Joseph's mother to the parish which in due time snowballed to more serious matters & literally takes down the State machinery.
It's been close to a decade since Shaji Kailas had donned the director's cap with his last Malayalam venture being the forgetful "Ginger". This time around he has joined hands with Jinu V Abraham who has penned the script which is inspired obviously from the life of Jose Kuruvinakunnel. Apparently, his grandson had stated that the makers had refused to acknowledge it in the screenplay. Well for starters it comes across as "Ayyappanum Koshiyum" at first glance but failed to deliver the same impact. The slow motion & fight sequences does pump the adrenaline early on, though as the story goes on & on it felt like all of these sequences were on loop and doesn't provide any sense of novelty. Even the mannerisms that Prithvi was asked to portray reminds one of Lalettan from "Aarattu" & his other such flicks. So does it mean it was completely boring? Certainly not as I found the first half pretty engaging & though the tale in the latter half did hold promise, it failed to deliver the punches.
On the technical side, Abhinandhan Ramanujam's frames were fine while Jakes Bejoy's BGM was pretty impressive though the music was average. Despite the similarity in mannerisms to Lalettan, Prithvi has done a fine job as Kuriyachen with his swag and attitude. Both Vivek & Samyuktha were rather average while the others did their parts aptly be it Shajon, Alencier, Baiju etc.
Verdict: It might not be an absolute mass entertainer like the yesteryears but it would still keep the audience interested. As Prithvi mentioned in one of his press conferences, we certainly more of such movies from this genre, though it needs to be executed much more impressively. In short, you may give it a try!!!
Rating: 2/5
Regards...Ben
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