This is an original article written and edited by Anoop Prathapan and first posted on Facebook on the 4th of August 2022
Almost every review of Kaduva that I read online starts with how director Shaji Kailas stayed away from cinema for a decade and how he made the same type of movie on his comeback, not recognizing the changes Malayalam Cinema went through. But I see it from a different perspective.
Kaduva is definitely a two-decade-old wine in a polished old bottle, I agree, but the ace filmmaker of the late 1990s and early 2000s has simmered out an action movie that is not tiring even one bit, does not lag, and so is not soporiferous. His style of filmmaking might be what a newbie director deems archaic, but Kaduva is definitely a movie that yields wholesome entertainment that you can watch with family on a boring weekend, for if not for anything novel it may deliver, it is sure to reminisce one of the vintage Mohanlal action movies of the same genre, the same director delivered almost one and a half decades ago.
The project ran into disputes before the theatrical release of the film when a planter/businessman in Pala claimed this narrative to be inspired by his own life. That be true or not, the storyline, though highly predictable, entertains. Editing, cinematography, and action choreography suit a prototype Shaji Kailas movie, though his usual tight close-ups seem missing. Music by Jakes Bejoy disappoints as always. (No…I am not copy-pasting this statement from the previous review; his music is really so blasé)
Prithviraj looks forced as the young planter. He seems to struggle to bring about those feudal lord mannerisms in his dialogue delivery and gait. It is when I see such youngsters grappling in such roles, that I get recalled of how actor Mohanlal could generate more goosebumps in similar roles with just a quarter of the efforts.
Undoubtedly, Prithviraj Sukumaran is a poorer actor than a director or to say it positively, he is a better director than an actor.
I seriously do not know why Vivek Oberoi has still not purchased a return ticket to Bombay even two and half years after he was killed in Lucifer. Do not know in how many more films would we have to see him struggling to sync his lips to Vineeth's or Shoby Thilakan's voice. Samyuktha Menon has nothing much to do in the narrative other than to advise her husband that his outburst at the church at an old woman was wrong. Seema, with Mallika Sukumaran's voice, overacts in tonnes. Shajon, Baiju, and Alansier played roles that Jagathy Sreekumar, Saikumar, Maniyan Pillai Raju or Manoj K Jayan played in Narasimham or Valiyettan, ten years back.
Watch Kaduva on Amazon Prime on a dreary weekend when you have nothing important to do, for that might be the only time you could afford to rest your brain for 155 minutes.
My Rating 6/10
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