Ananthan Kaadu
Action Thriller Malayalam
This is a tale, which almost became a true story. It unfolds in the late Eighties and early Nineties, when the country was going through a dark phase both politically and socially a time when turmoil was writ all over the political scape of the nation.
| Cast: | Arya, Nikhila Vimal, Regina Cassandra, Vijayaraghavan, Achyuth Kumar, Indrans, Siddique, Santhy Balachandran, Murali Gopy, Sunil Varma, Dev Mohan |
|---|---|
| Director: | Jiyen Krishnakumar |
| Writer: | Murali Gopy |
| Editor: | Rohit VS Variyath |
| Camera: | Yuva |
All Guild Reviews of "Ananthan Kaadu"
A Flat, Old-Fashioned Political Potboiler Lacking Novelty
The filmmaker and the screenwriter seem to have taken the period setting of the film in the early 1990s a little too seriously, for the writing and making have a visible hangover of that era
One of the highly charged sequences in Ananthan Kaadu, directed by Jiyen Krishnakumar and written by Murali Gopy, happens inside a college campus in Thiruvananthapuram in the early 1990s. This “mass” scene featuring the screenwriter himself in a highly imaginary scenario, hardly has any connection with the main plot, almost as if it accidentally got mixed into this film from the edits of some other film. Its only intention appears to be to inject some regressive political points into the narrative. This particular sequence might not be surprising for those who have watched Tiyaan (2017), the previous team-up of Jiyen Krishnakumar and Murali Gopy, which had its share of regressive politics packaged in the garb of a progressive film.
Arya's Revenge Thriller Drowns in Its Own Sub-Plots
Director Jiyen Krishnakumar's Ananthan Kaadu, starring Arya, Murali Gopy, Indrans and Vijayaraghavan, is a story about how the system neverlets you win. The film has an interesting backdrop, but fails to achieve a cohesive story.
Ananthan Kaadu takes us back to the Sri Lankan civil war, when several crores of people were beaten, killed and raped. The initial stretches, featuring rebel group leader Vetri (Arya) and his gang being ambushed by the Sri Lankan Army, show officers behaving like sexual predators and killing machines. Right when you gear up for a film on one of the darkest chapters in Sri Lankan history, it turns into a formulaic revenge thriller. In 1989, during the Sri Lankan war, Vetri (Arya) loses his family and escapes to Kerala seeking a life where his identity is hidden. Krishnan Kutty (Indrans) and his team take him in. The group, which works as mercenaries for Kerala Chief Minister KK Menon (Vijayaraghavan), also run a music troupe as a cover.
Beneath the Politics Lies a Predictable Revenge Tale
Ananthan Kaadu delivers as a decent entertainer, but remains one of Murali Gopy's most straightforward commercial scripts, lacking the layered storytelling and ideological depth often associated with his writing
Ananthan Kaadu begins with an extensive sequence of mass violence, much like writer Murali Gopy’s previous film L2: Empuraan. If Empuraan opened with disturbing visuals inspired by the Godhra riots, the lens this time turns towards the brutality inflicted on Tamil civilians during the Sri Lankan Civil War. The camera shows little restraint as helpless people, including children, are lined up and shot at point-blank range, women are assaulted, and makeshift homes are set ablaze. Among the victims is the protagonist’s mother.
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