There is a moment in the final moments of the movie Ananthan Kaadu where one character shows his valor, and the lines in that part of the film, along with the build-up towards that moment, have that quintessential cinematic energy. But how scriptwriter Murali Gopy builds things towards that point feels like a generic imagination that rarely gives you any surprise. With the usual idea of revenge getting rhetorical and stretched-out treatment, Ananthan Kaadu is a thriller with very few spikes. How this movie gets this title has a very captivating backstory. But such a thought deserved a better story.
The story is set in the early ’90s against the backdrop of Trivandrum city. Thankaraj and his gang had a criminal past. Now they have stopped all that and are living a peaceful life with their own orchestra group. At one point, the gang gave shelter to a Tamil man named Mani, and what we see here are the events that unfold in the lives of these people after Mani’s arrival.
This is the second collaboration of Jiyen Krishnakumar and Murali Gopy after Tiyaan, and here also, one can see Murali Gopy trying to add his philosophies into the screenplay. The kind of scripts Murali Gopy wrote in the beginning, like Ee Adutha Kaalathu and Left Right Left, the way he played with the writing structure, had made them very compelling. What we currently miss in his scripts is that peculiar approach. The largely linear narrative of Ananthan Kaadu does not offer us any surprises. The second time we see Arya in this movie, the film gives that scene an intro-like buildup, and one could see from a distance that it was going to be Arya. The tactical conspiracy by the antagonist is what gives life to this story, and it wasn’t something complex or nuanced for us to feel for the victims of that plan.
The staging of scenes isn’t happening refreshingly. I am emphasizing the freshness aspect in presentation because the theme of this movie is the same old revenge story. So the only thing that could make it interesting is the way that the story is presented. As I already mentioned, when Murali Gopy doesn’t play with the structure of the screenplay, his writing somewhat becomes an exhibition of his vocabulary and knowledge. Here, we can see all the characters saying rhyming dialogues in colloquial language. The movie is set in the 90s, and at times, even the dialogue rendering goes back to that era. The production design of the movie has done an impressive job in recreating that period in many scenes, especially the railway station scenes in the climax.
Arya may well be projected as the hero, but in terms of screentime, he has very little to do in this movie. His entire dubbing may have been finished in a day. There is one Karate fight sequence in the movie, and I think they added it to reduce the disappointment of those who may think this is an Arya movie. Murali Gopy as Thankaraj gets the lengthiest role in the movie. It was a grounded character, and the actor did a good job. Whenever Indrans has done a serious role that goes against the way we have seen him in films, the performance has garnered appreciation, and here too, he did a wonderful job. In fact, the scenes that got applause from the audience in the entire movie were carried by him. Vijayaraghavan, as KK Menon, the state’s CM, was effective in that role as he was able to carry the drama in the dialogues neatly. Dev Mohan and Appani Sarath were fine in their respective roles. Santhi Balachandran was able to add some depth to that typical suffering character. Telugu actor Sunil plays the part of the police head in that usual animated manner. Including Nikhila Vimal, there are several major actors from multiple industries in roles that have only two or three scenes.
At one point in the movie, we get this narration from a character that explains why this movie is called Ananthan Kaadu. The metaphorical aspect of that whole thing actually felt like a great way to pitch a script idea to a producer. And I would say when you hear such a pitch from someone who has written movies like Left Right Left, there will be anticipation to experience something of that sort. Unfortunately, Ananthan Kaadu remains a flat revenge story that couldn’t create a novel high point.
