Kaattumaakkan Malayalam Movie
Shalil Kallur's 'Kaattumaakkaan' is like a ball maze toy that that has got its openings jammed. No matter which way you twirl the toy, the balls refuse to move across the labyrinth towards the target wedge that lies right at the centre!
When a man falls to death from the terrace of a multi storied apartment, the police led by DYSP Harishankar (Nazar) almost dismiss it as suicide. However when the autopsy report suggests that the man has been brutally beaten up, shot and poisoned, the cops roll up their sleeves and get down to business - that of cracking the murder mystery.
'Kaattumaakkaan' is thus named after its antagonist - Toby - who has devastated many a happy family. He has no dearth of enemies and the investigating officers soon zero in on Madhavan (Mukesh) who readily confesses the crime.
It's only the commencement of a bloated plot that brings in several characters into the fray, once after the other. While the entire first hour of the film dwells on Madhavan and his alcoholic addiction, the rest of it is grabbed by several other minor characters who have their own stories to tell.
Some of these tales are abruptly led half way through, like Madhavan's for instance. The man has a loving wife and two kids, and when he is accused of something unimaginable, he has no choice but to prove his innocence and punish the guilty. But at the paoint, his family disappears from the film, and are not seen anymore.
A few other stories appear as add-ons that are in no mood to stick together. When Dr. Raveendran (S P Sreekumar) starts recounting the trauma that he has been through, or when Vakkachan (Vijay Menon) discovers that his daughter has grown much bigger than he had expected her to be, the odds that appear out of the blue are plenty.
Thus it goes round and round in circles and ends with the suggestion that someone else might come along with something new to tell. Ultimately they all come down to women being abused, families being tarnished and revenge being sought. Cheesy and quite unimpressive, all these and more have already been seen, numerous times.
Mukesh, who plays the lead role in the film appears a bit edgy, to the point of appearing jittery. Indrans appears in a key role, while there are also a host of newcomers whose performances range from maudlin to strictly average.
There isn't much of a tussle between style and substance here, but if I were to pick one, I would say the film looks much better than the actual essence that it has on offer. Anil Easwar does create a few frames that are easy on the eyes. Surprisingly, the film also has an striking musical score composed by Shine Issai and Murali Guruvayoor.
As an afterthought, the funniest moment in the film is when some gruesome violence transpires on screen, and the mandatory statutory warning against cigarette and alcohol consumption comes up. Does make one wonder if our priorities in conscientization need an immediate rearrangement.
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