Review for KURUP:
•Language: MALAYALAM.
•Duration: 156 Minutes.
•Genre: BIOGRAPHICAL CRIME THRILLER.
•Theatre: DREAMS ATTINGAL, 07:00 AM Show.
•STATUS: HOUSEFULL.
• REVIEW BY ARUNJYOTHI.R.VALIYAVEETIL.
•POSITIVES:
1: PERFORMANCE OF ACTORS.
2: CINEMATOGRAPHY.
3: MUSIC AND BACKGROUND SCORE.
4: DECENT MAKING.
5: EDITING.
•NEGATIVES:
1: SECOND HALF.
2: ENDING.
3: MEDIOCRE SCREENPLAY.
•ONE WORD: Into the cunning world of Kurup, but lagged to keep the impact, still watchable.
•DETAILED IN-DEPTH REVIEW:
Kurup tells the life of Gopi Krishnan, a man who turned into a criminal and murder, how did he end up being a criminal, how does he become India’s most wanted fugitive and why did he killed his own identity, and for what reason he took the name of Kurup to his life is the story which the movie unfolds.
Kurup is directed by Srinath Rajendran and written by Jithin K. Jose, the screenplay and dialogues are written by K. S. Aravind and Daniell Sayooj Nair. The movie is produced by Dulquer Salmaan and Akhil C Nair under the productions of Wayfarer films and M Star Entertainments. The movie is distributed by Wayfarer Films in Malayalam, Dream Warrior Pictures in Tamil, Aditi Enterprises in Telugu, and UFO Moviez in Hindi. The movie is currently in theatres with a running time of 157 minutes.
The people of Kerala won’t forget the name of Sukumara Kurup, a criminal who is still not caught for his crimes, India’s longest wanted fugitive. His name is popular and generation after generation people find his life interesting and would like to know the mysteries that lie behind him. As a 90’s kid at my schooling when I first heard the name of Sukumara Kurup through the news I was eager to know what he did and day by day when this name comes I use to wonder where is he and is he still alive, questions and mysteries makes the name Sukumara Kurup interesting. So when this film was announced I was excited and by seeing the cast and crew I decided to watch it on the first day and the first show, also I strongly believed the movie won’t disappoint but sadly for me it’s just a watchable film.
The plot written by Jithin K. Jose based on the life of India’s most wanted fugitive Sukumara Kurup was written moderately, the writing was good but slightly ended with a small negative element. The main plus factor I liked in the story writing is the writer had never portrayed the central character heroically, transforming was never made and whatever we had heard it was originally made over the story. The time taken to establish to portray the life of the protagonist was steadily written by the writers and various incidents happening in the life of the main characters was implemented legitimately on the right track. The writing including the screenplay and dialogues by K. S. Aravind and Daniell Sayooj Nair made the unfolding events of the film thrilling and compelling. The first half of the film is all about the life of the main character which largely focuses on his personal life. This is the place where the movie is taking it’s enough time to organize and stabilize the events and happenings. Who is Kurup, how was his life, how does he live, who does all he trusted, his love and family and how did he turn out to be a criminal is what the first half is trying to explain and the second half is all about the hunt to find Kurup filled up with the police investigation with many unexpected events, also some turning points happening in the life of Kurup is shown in the second part.
The drawback I faced in the writing is the adding of the fictional elements to the original story, how the writer portrayed their fictional story with the original story was not that much convincing to my viewing experience. Why Kurup was not caught and why did he impose such brutal criminal things and for what reason did he makes all these horrible incidents were felt completely different from the real-life scenarios, here the adoption was changed into the imagination of writers and further events which we can see in the film were made up more like cinematic stuff. Another negative I felt was in the second half, the ending was hurried up, all the occurrences and events were happening very fast, felt like the makers were trying to end up the film very fast. The protagonist was changed into another dimension and the actual reason why he turned out to be a criminal was lacking depth, the purpose was good but the execution by the makes and writer could have been better. So towards the end, the totality of the film changes into another aspect, making the central character do many crucial things for survival was showcased but all those scenes lack a punch, main characters coming and going and things getting easily done was shown too simply, a wow factor to get excited and thrilled was missing.
The direction by Srinath Rajendran was fine but not great, he started brilliantly but slowly from the mid-second half things started to get off-balance, the steady momentum from the beginning was fallen when the movie entered into the fictional space. The way he made the film was fair, an adaption from the real-life incidents was brought honestly and also used the talents of the actors successfully but what accurately did not come out was his making on the second half. The way he ended the film was average, the connecting factor which relates to the event leading to the climax was requiring the complexion of reality, to believe all those scenes which we saw on the screen is hard to digest. For those who had high expectations, the movie may disappoint because the potential story was not effectively used and sadly the brought-up fictional elements were not having the proper impact for the viewers to get thrilled but still in the end the movie is watchable. So all over the story and the making till the climax was excellent, many truth and reality were shown structurally on the right track with the best performance but when the fiction appears director and writers was not able to give their best, turned everything on an average manner, effort and imagination could have been better.
The film comes with the casting of Dulquer Salman in the lead role followed by the actors such as Indrajith Sukumaran, Shine Tom Chacko, Sobhita Dhulipala, Sunny Wayne, Shivajith Padmanabhan, Vijaykumar Prabhakaran, Sunny Wayne, Vijayaraghavan Pillai, Surabhi Lakshmi, Maya Menon, and Hareesh Kanaran.
Dulquer Salmaan playing the role of Sudhakara Kurup was shocking for me at the time when the movie was announced. Many questions and doubts came across my mind questioning whether he will be able to do it, does his psychical appearance be matching and will he be able to do a villain shade real-life character. But while watching the film all this was vanished by his fantastic performance. From the very beginning till the end he just stole the show with his energetic performance. The way he undertook the character and the various kind of methods he used to portray the character showed his unique acting skills. I was really happy to see Dulquer Salmaan’s on the big screen after a long time, he came and did his best, he doesn’t disappoint like always he does. In Kurup what I liked most in his performance are his attitude and style, the several modes of his acting, and the flawless dialogue delivery, combined the whole performance was a package of zero mistakes and no errors. The intensity which I saw in his acting was powerful, in many crucial scenes his eyes were keen and it gave an additional balance and importance for those scenes. The expressions were impressive, no matter what the scene is he gives the authentic mannerism, proper utterances and right pacing of behaving so the acting looks precise and it’s clearly evident that he has done some tremendous homework to make the character appealing. The character he played in real-life is mixed up with the element of a villain, so the strategies Dulquer Salmaan undertook for representing as a villain was remarkable with many surprising factors. For the first time, I am seeing him doing a negative role so from a hero to a villain the transformation which we can detect on his personality and vocals was astonishing, clearly like a villain who can get many hates. Next to his dialogue delivery, it deserves huge applause, the timing in delivering the dialogues was stellar because the various modulation according to the different types of the scene was handled honestly. The dialogues at the emotional scenes had carved the moods of sentiments. When it comes to the romantic scenes his charming looks and the way he has nabbed those love tracks with Sobhita Dhulipala developed the feeling of love. At last, when it comes to the cunning side to showcase his villain side Dulquer had made an unbelievable job on his acting and delivering the dialogues. The character demands a trickery side of a fraud person so the cheating methods, the darker sides of the character, and even the decision of killing was acted out amazingly, these elements of a negative shade were completely safer on his hands. So, therefore, the performance laid down by Dulquer is one of the winning successes, one of the best characters in his carrier.
The supporting characters have an important phase in this film so Indrajith Sukumaran, Shine Tom Chacko, and Vijayakumar Prabhakaran does complete justice to make their respective important roles. Indrajith Sukumaran who does the role of DYSP Krishnadas did a classy performance. His way of approaching for doing the role of a sincere police officer was fascinating. The valid form attitude was maintained all over through and the dialogue delivery on the investigative track was dealt with right proper manner. Indrajith Sukumaran gaily retained the seriousness of an honest cop, the commitment that we can find on an investigative police officer to find the culprit was seem vibrantly on his performance. His character was having qualities like the clever mind to find the facts, observing mentality to realize what is wrong and right and the experienced way to discover whether he/she has a role in a crime was brilliantly acted out in the entire film, he is truly an underrated actor, honestly deserves more attention.
Shine Tom Chacko is the next one who had shined like Dulquer and Indrajith. His character called Bhaskaran Pillai was having crammed with many negative shades and the way Shine Tom Chacko handled the character was terrific. The way he speaks and the way he looks and finally the way he does was condensed with the real face of a villain, also the accurate sense of intensity in presenting the dialogues was impressive. Shivajith Padmanabhan did the role of Shahu, the friend of Kurup, was patting on the right track with his fine performance, the negative shade was dealt in the fine manner and his outlook and performance were noticeable. In the previous movies of Srinath Rajendran, the actor Vijayakumar Prabhakaran always had an important role and he did those characters positively so what is noticeable here is the trust of a director towards an actor. In the film Kurup also Vijayakumar Prabhakaran has given an important significant role, with a negative touch, he was the personal driver of Kurup character and without falling he had done a good job. Sobhita Dhulipala does a character called Sharada Kurup, the wife of the central character Kurup. She did a great job, her combination scenes with Dulquer Salmaan was filled with various mixed emotion. The romance had worked out perfectly and the chemistry laid between both of them was having the right connection and feel. Her emotional scenes had worked out well, the sentiments were having the right feeling, a small drawback was the lip sinking.
The musical works for the film are composed by Sushin Shyam which includes the background score. Sulaiman Kakkodan also composed a song for the film. The song “Pakaliravukal” sung by Neha Nair and Sushin Shyam was melodious with the lyrics of Anwar Ali. The vocals of Neha Nair took the song to establish the romance between Dulquer and Sobhita Dhulipala also the matching visuals and the tunes were great to set the romance. The second song “Dingiri Dingale” was good but not that great. Dulquer Salman sang the song and his vocals were ok but the lyrics of Terry Bathei were having syncing issues. The background score composed by Sushin Shyam was amazing because for every particular scene he gave the right tunes to set the premise. For the crime scenes, the background score had lifted the whole scenario differently to realize the depth. When it comes to the drama scenes also the background score was helping to stabilize the mood of sentiments. Some of the background tunes were great to build the suspense and intensity, the viewers will keep on the hook with the scene for knowing what is next. For the investigative scenes also the BGM was standing principally high to make a proper curiosity and interest. So the whole background score composed by Sushin Shyam was magnifically high and comforted every scene to show its implication and impact.
The technical aspects of the film were rich in every manner, the top quality cinematography, accurate editing, proper costumes according to the period, and the detailed work by the art department made Kurup one of the finest technical films of recent times. The cinematography by Nimish Ravi was excellent, every frame that we can see in the film was according to the script. The crime which the movie focuses on was cleverly captured by the cinematographer, one will be contrived with the frames and with the nature of the film. The various shots he composed were magnificently taken especially the crime scenes, the totality of the 1980’s period was beautifully captured with the realistic approach, the effort of the cinematographer deserves special mention. The camera movements for action sequences and for the chase scene were stunning with the right movements. The lighting techniques he used for the indoor scenes were also remarkable and the outdoor scenes especially the scenes of the northern part of India was caught drastically in the right manner. Some of the close-up shots which used to exhibit the expressions of central characters were taken naturally, really loved the whole camera work. The editing of Vivek Harshan was flawless, the cuts were on the right track and the transition of scenes didn’t give any kind of mismatches. The most important thing I found interesting in the editing was the grading, the night shots were seen as natural, depending on the type of scene Vivek Harshan had given the right grading to set the desired mood. The spectacular costume work must be mentioned because as a periodical movie all the costumes which we can see in the film for the characters was according to the time and year, doesn’t felt any irregularities. The costumes and dress for Dulquer also looked stylish and matched to set the fashion of the 1980s. The art department had done an incredible job on making the sets of periodical times and also the film set implying the northern part of India looked actual. Therefore the whole technical division had worked as a team and brought the movie differently and was unique.
Therefore to conclude if you want to know more about the real Sukumara Kurup the movie is worth but better to keep the expectations lower. The performance from the actors are outstanding and the technical division of the film is excellent but the making and story is not that perfect, stands to an above-average level, the imaginations, and fiction from the makers haven’t lived up to the expectations, still worth a watch from the big screen.
• VERDICT: A WATCHABLE THRILLER
• RATING: 3/5.
