Kuttavum Shikshayum movie review: Rajeev Ravi’s signature style lends life to Asif Ali’s police procedural

3.5/5

Story: CI Sajan Philip is tasked with the investigation of a jewellery theft in Kattapana. He quickly rounds up a team of subordinates to track down the culprits. One by one, they eliminate the suspects till they track down the identity of the thieves, who have escaped to their village in Rajasthan. Sajan and his team decide to nab the culprits from where they are hiding but the hurdle is that the village in Rajasthan is infamous for dacoits and robbers and is even feared by the local police. Can the Kerala police team apprehend the culprits in a stealth mission or will they go back empty handed?

Review: By now it’s already known that Rajeev Ravi’s Kuttavum Shikshayum is inspired by true events revolving around a group of policemen from Kerala going to a village in Uttar Pradesh to nab the culprits responsible for a jewellery robbery. There are several ways to make a film with a gripping content like this – one would be to do what Tamil filmmaker H Vinoth did with Karthi’s Theeran: Adhigaaram Ondru, the other was to do complete justice to the true events that transpired. It’s no surprise that Rajeev has chosen the latter and has still come with an engaging crime drama.

Scriptwriters Sreejith Divakaran and Sibi Thomas, who was one of the officers involved in the real-life investigation, have chosen to tell much of the story as it happened. Kuttavum Shikshayum is a police procedural and a realistic one at that; it offers an insider’s view into the investigation, the processes and the different tracks the probe took before finding out who the criminals are. Even after that, it doesn’t stop to paint thieves and villages in black, instead it shows their circumstances that would evoke empathy, while at the same time, it takes the viewer through the various challenges that the Kerala policemen in an alien terrain and conditions have to navigate to accomplish their mission.

Suresh Rajan’s cinematography of the film is a character in itself. You feel the peril and peculiarity in places where the cops have to put themselves in to solve a case, and at times it doesn’t quite yield the results they have worked for. The way the scenes in Rajasthan are picturised – be at the police station, the hotels or the remote village of Dhanaganj – reflect the sense of unfamiliarity that the group of five policemen experience. The movie’s music is minimal but at the same time, it works well for a crime drama that progresses from incident to incident, rather than delving too much into the mind space of its characters.

That said, the characters of the cops – especially Asif Ali’s Sajan and Alencier Ley’s Basheer – are shaped in a way that it melds with the investigation and doesn’t stand apart as a subplot. Asif’s performance as Sajan once again shows how he has now become adept at handling mature characters. These come through most during his interactions with Alencier, who lends gravitas to his character of a senior officer who hasn’t considered a life beyond work. The movie’s humour is organic and these mostly are shown through the characters of Sunny Wayne and Sharafudheen; both of whom play their characters with restraint.

While a real-life investigation might not be as suspenseful as a riveting thriller, Kuttavum Shikshayam, which is as realistic as possible, shows that it does come with its set of thrills. Many could complain that the movie doesn’t really gather pace even in its latter half when the cops have to resort to a quick raid in the dead of the night but credit must be given to the film’s makers and editor B Ajithkumar for never making it lose the momentum.

Verdict: While Kuttavum Shikshayum might not find its place among Rajeev Ravi’s best two works, it does have his signature style written all over and the filmmakers deserves credit for taking a subject based on true incidents and not giving it an over-the-top treatment by making it as gripping entertainer. The performances of the cast as well as the brilliant cinematography ensures that the movie is a good watch, if you prefer realistic crime dramas.