Kanal

Towards the climax, Kanal tries to get in to that diplomatic region defending the situation of a criminal. I thought the final product would be something like a Badlapur where the story will show a transition of a character. But unfortunately the film fails to deliver some variety in that aspect and ends up as a cliché thriller that looks exhausting.

John David, an animator meets a man named Anantharaman during a train journey to Karnataka. The gloomy Anantharaman grabs the attention of the philosophical John David and as their destination was same, they decided to go together.  The movie basically shows us the mysterious back story of John David and what is the link between him and Anantharaman.

The build up for the film is too big when you look at the conclusion. There isn’t much happening in the back story to make this hero (or villain) a philosopher. And a kind of intellectual misogyny is there in his attitude which doesn’t suit the reason for his revenge. The movie is definitely a little more than what it should have been in terms of runtime. All the suspense and characters seem to be too much when Kanal approaches the end and there are areas that lack clarity.

On screen Kanal only utilizes this intense look of Mohanlal. The dialogues were heavy but the complete actor manages to give them a sort of naturality. More than Anoop Menon who did an okay job, it was Atul Kulkarni who showed a better performance. Sheelu Abraham wasn’t that great. An elaborate cast including Nikita, Honey Rose, Devi Ajith, Prathap Pothen and a few more are there who were just okay.

Padmakumar can’t reduce the dramatic feel of the script through his making. The script lacks crispness and there isn’t much moments that sort of establishes any interesting ideology. Most of the time the movie is dull and the lack of engagement is a serious issue. The whole global financial crisis part and the media ethics side were only a mere backdrop. The climax portion where the culprit justifies his act by blaming the situation created a curiosity, but what happens after that reduces the movie to just another revenge story. Cinematography wasn’t that great and I must appreciate the team who was behind the helicam (neat work). Edits were a bit awkward. The track by Vinu Thomas was good while Ouseppachan couldn’t deliver any charming track or catchy background score.

On the whole Kanal is slightly over written and very less intriguing. The content had the scope to be a better emotional thriller if they had tried something different from the usual in terms of scripting pattern and also on the overall presentation. The rating for Kanal is 2/5.