Karutha Joothan

There is a scene in the movie Karutha Joothan where we get to see a drama sequence that says the fact that the future world might only know about the Mattanchery based Jews in Kerala and nobody will know about the Jews who lived in the Malabar area. Well I belong to that ignorant future and on that aspect Karutha Joothan from Salim Kumar is an informative film. But when you analyze this story for its cinematic quality it has flaws.

Aaron, a Jew who lived in Mala is the central protagonist of the film. After his father’s demise he decided to go for a journey to study about his ancestors. Due to certain unexpected turn of events, he couldn’t come back at the time he promised and by the time he arrived, he lost almost everything he had. How Aaron faces this terrible situation is what Karutha Joothan talking about.

When you look at the central characters, there is an emotional similarity between Karumban of Moonam Naal Njarazhcha and Aaron of Karutha Joothan. Both are holding on to their culture and they want to continue in that despite all the odds. Karutha Joothan becomes interesting only when it explores the Jew culture that existed here. The sort of information we get and the visuals of their life style are the major positives of this film. But when it goes to the dramatic traumatic story of Aaron, the content isn’t completely gripping because of the theatricality in presentation of scenes. Towards the end Salim Kumar infuses his party politics in to this story in a totally unnecessary manner.

As an actor Salim Kumar manages to become the character in terms of body language and emotions. The drama in his writing has not only caused issues in his performance, but the others too are struggling. Ramesh Pisharady is there in a brief role. Babu Annur plays the role of the close friend of Aaron. Sivaji Guruvayoor, Usha and a few more actors are there in the cast.

As a director Salim Kumar isn’t an expert in getting the most natural performance from his actors. And it is mainly due to the way he has written scenes. It had the emotions but the presentation has this high on dramatic tone which reduces the life in those scenes. And the pattern he has chosen to build the story isn’t an entirely fresh one. In the early part of the second half of the film, we get to feel some emotions as that area showed the miserable situation of the character effectively. But then it again derails in to sentiments that needed better visual depiction. The cinematography was good, but the color palette was slightly confusing.

Karutha Joothan as a story had the potential to be a heart wrenching tale that could make us do a self analysis. But the lack of realness in making and the excessive drama in writing pulls the movie back from reaching that point.

Rating: 2.5/5