Kadak Singh (Movie)

 Saw Kadak Singh on Zee5 (Hindi).

A man  - A. K. Srivastava (Pankaj Tripathi) apparently tries to commit suicide, and ends up in the hospital. There it is discovered that he now has retrograde amnesia due to the suicide attempt. 

The amnesia is so bad that he doesn't even remember his own daughter. He only remembers his younger son, that too at year 5 (the son is now 17, the daughter is older).

A. K. was investigating a major chit fund scandal as part of his work at the Department of Financial Crimes (DFC). He suspects that his suicide(?) was related to that scandal's investigation. Interestingly, one of his colleagues had earlier committed suicide a few days earlier, and he too was looking into the same case.

His extremely strict demeanour at home has led his children to give him the nickname of "Kadak Singh".

Since he remembers almost no one, he trusts no one. The Rashomon effect method is used well in this movie. There is a daughter Sakshi (Sanjana Sanghi), a love interest Naina (Jaya Ahsan) - his wife died in an accident years ago, a colleague, a boss, a head of the department. Everyone tells their own version of the story. 

It is A. K. who has to put the pieces together, and decide which pieces are correct and which are false.

A. K. may have forgotten people and places, but his procedural memory - he was the top investigator at his department - is intact. In all of this he is helped by the nurse at the hospital - Ms. Kannan (Parvathy Thiruvothu). She is the only one he can trust, because she has no vested interest in him or the events surrounding him.

The supporting cast is good. Sanjana Sanghi is an unexpected pleasant surprise. She showcases all the aspects of being an elder daughter in a house with a dead mother and a "married to his work" father, and a druggie younger brother, well.

Arjun (Paresh Pahuja) as the devoted junior colleague, who has full faith in his boss' ethics, and Tyagi (Dilip Shankar) as A. K.'s boss, do a good job. So does Naina as his love interest. 

The surprise package is the nurse, Kannan. With extremely limited scope, she still manages to show so many emotions as to endear herself to you.

Amidst all of this, Pankaj Tripathi stands tall. His eyes are expressive. His acting is as close to perfect as can be. He is one of my favorites, and proves again how good he is in this film.

Where the film lacks is in pace. It is slow (but steady). And is hampered by the fact that it is shot mostly indoors (hospital), thereby limiting the options for increasing the tempo.

But overall, will definitely recommend.

 

Kannur Squad (Malayalam)

Kannur Squad is a 2023 Malayalam-language crime thriller directed by Roby Varghese Raj and produced by Mammootty. The film is based on a real life police squad who were part of the Kannur Squad, a crime investigation unit, formed by former Kannur SP S. Sreejith IPS.

I watched this on Disney + Hotstar.

The movie starts off with the squad, led by ASI George Martin (Mammootty) finding an apparent suicide in the forest. They suspect murder instead. After investigating, they find the culprit and solve the case. 

But shortly thereafter, one of the members, CPO Jayan is found guilty of taking a bribe. This brings the entire Kannur Squad into disrepute and it is disbanded.

A couple of years later, a rich Muslim businessman, Abdul Wahab, is found murdered in the course of a dacoity at his house in Kasargod. The local police are unable to make any progress. So the SP of Kasargod gets the Kannur Squad formed again, in spite of resistance due to the previous stain on their reputation.

The squad gets into action. Using good old fashioned detective work, they find that a local named Riyas had purchased two SIM cards for someone else. On further investigation, they discover that Riyas found that Abdul Wahab had kept a lot of money at his house. He then involved two more people called Ameer and Zulfiqar, in exchange for a cut. Ameer and Zulfiqar also got 2 goons, Hathooda and Bambiha along for the job.

The job went wrong. Money was not at the house. In anger, Ameer killed Zulfiqar and assaulted his teenage daughter. Then they escaped.

The squad makes an all India chase. First Bhubaneshwar, then Faizabad. There they are given one single constable of the UP Police, Yogesh Yadav. Using his local knowledge, they land up in a village where the criminals' accomplice Pawan stays. And what a village!! Every one united in trying to kill the policemen "who are outsiders", without any morals about their own villager who is a criminal.

Pawan gives them Payagpur as the destination. One more train chase. The squad manages to capture Hathoda and Bambiha on the train leaving Payagpur.

But the main ones, Ameer and Zulfiqar, are going to Babaganj to finally cross over into Nepal. So the squad rush and corner them in their hideout in the jungle. After a fierce fight, the squad manages to overpower them, aided by the Sahastra Seema Bal (our border force for the Nepal - Bhutan border).

In all of this, there is no support from the department. Air tickets are not sanctioned. They have to travel using a standard police SUV for thousands of kms.

In the end, they are asked to turn back. In one of the best scenes of the movie, Mammootty refuses a direct order from his superior. And the chase is still on.

There is no mystery in this movie per se. Everything is pretty cut and dried. It is the grit with which the squad faces a lot of hardships, and their never-say-die attitude, which raises this movie above normal level.

Once they capture the criminals, they are offered plane tickets "to rush back as soon as possible", so that their superiors can bask in the glory of a job where they had no positive contribution. The squad refuses, and comes back by road :-).

The squad fight for the pure nature of being a police officer, which is to capture criminals and bring law and order into society. 

This is what I think cinema originally was supposed to be about. No gimmicks. No special effects. Only pure storytelling.

Mammootty magic backed up by an excellent supporting cast.

A film definitely worth a watch. 

Mumbai Police (Malayalam Film)

 I recently watched "Mumbai Police" (Malayalam) on Disney + Hotstar.

The film starts with a police officer driving and talking on the phone with someone. He says "I have found the culprit". And the next moment, he has an accident.

From there the story begins. Because in this accident, he has had a major memory loss. He not only doesn't remember the culprit, but a whole lot of other things as well. He doesn't remember his friends - in the Police and outside, his own sister, where he lives, etc. He doesn't even remember who he is, in the true sense of the word.

Plus he is again given charge of the same case that he had solved. But for him, this is like a new case due to his unique condition.

ACP Antony Moses (Prithviraj Sukumaran), this policeman, starts all over again. We find that the case is actually the brazen shooting death of a fellow policeman and friend Aryan John Jacob (Jayasurya) . The death (by a sniper's bullet) occurred at a function where tons of policemen were present, ironically for giving a gallantry award to Aryan Jacob. 

Antony's brother-in-law Farhan Aman (Rashin Rahman), who plays the Commissioner of Police) tries to help him get his memory back.

Antony discovers that Aryan, Farhan and he were very good friends. They earned the nickname "Mumbai Police" because all of them had served in Mumbai at a point in time, although Aryan hadn't served exactly at the same time as the other two over there.

The plot dives and weaves among possible suspects. Antony discovers a lot of things about himself. He finds that he was not a good person and has earned a lot of enemies, some of whom try to attack him post discharge. He actually was called "Rascal Moses", such was his reputation.

During this time Farhan is also not his usual self.

Antony finds that his previous investigation was not really up to the mark, which is surprising as he is a competent police officer. So then was he deliberately messing up the case? Was he protecting someone after finding the truth?

There's a sudden twist at the end, and the truth is revealed. It is at a very personal level, and is pretty unexpected.

All the main actors have done a decent job.  All in all, a decent mystery. Worth a watch.