Kasaba is a movie for those who enjoy the use of misogyny to create heroism. In the recent interviews done for the promotion of Kasaba, Nithin Renji Panicker and Mammootty has repeatedly said that Nithin’s style and making are totally different from his father. Well after having seen his creation, I wont agree to their claim. Except for the fact there isn’t much of English spitting in the content, Kasaba is pretty much a Renji Panicker movie with a making style that is somewhat outdated or should I say Dabangg inspired?
Rajan Zachariah, a CI whose conduct certificate isn’t that clean is our hero. The officer decides to go to a village in the Kerala border for the investigation of a case that had some personal emotional connections. What’s that case? Who is behind all that? And what all things are awaiting the quirky, womanizer, male chauvinist Rajan Zachariah in that land is what Kasaba narrating.
Nithin has followed the same path of his father in creating characters. Police officers, political game players, pimps, sex workers etc. were always there in Renji Panicker’s movies (most of them). When it comes to Kasaba, Nithin has made only one main adjustment. He just twisted the hero a bit and made him look like the Chulbul Pandey we have seen in Dabangg. While all the other characters in the movie speak the dramatic language, Rajan Zachariah talks with full on attitude. There are times I enjoyed this cool, cooling glass attitude as it breaks the conventional rendering a bit, but mostly it is disgusting misogyny. Not a single female character is there with character. In the beginning of the film a lady police officer brags about our CI to another lady police officer from the north. And before going to meet Mr. Rajan Zachariah she leaves the first button unbuttoned and after the conversation the hands of Mr. Zachariah are on her belt. Honestly that’s a pathetic way to show heroism. The politics of the whole movie is visible in that one scene. There are many more areas were the hero uses this double meaning terms and reactions.
Mammootty has tried his best to be the Salman Khan kind of Rajan Zachariah the director wanted. May be because of the numerous “introduction” scenes the hero has with that music you heard in the teaser, I found the attitude a bit too over the top. Varalaxmi Sarathkumar who delivered a scintillating performance in Tharai Thappattai was just okay here. Sampath is this clichéd villain with political interest. Neha Saxena as Susan is just there because of the glamour factor. Jagadish was nice in his role. God knows the importance of Maqbool Salman’s character and ya, Alencier Lay is there in the movie. Shaheen and his father Siddique have got important characters with very less screentime (and even within that Siddique scores).
As a director, Nithin Renji Panicker is sort of stuck in the treatment of his Gurus mentioned in the thanks credits. The police movies in Malayalam nowadays have shown a really good growth when it comes to visualizing all these investigations and other things in a practically convincing way. Nithin’s hero and his heroics have this outdated predictable style. Even the screenplay looks so familiar and follows the formula used by his father in most of his movies that had this fight between bureaucrats and politicians. Cinematography was okay and the edits were a bit dizzy. The main theme music was good, but other than that the music isn’t really catchy.
So to sum it up, I would say Kasaba is uninteresting. It has these fan moments where Mammootty defies the villains with attitude. But that too will only satisfy those who are desperate to cheer and has a shallow level of grasping.
Rating : 2/5
Kasaba has these fan moments where Mammootty defies the villains with attitude. But that too will only satisfy those who are desperate to cheer and has a shallow level of grasping.
Green: Recommended Content
Orange: The In-Between Ones
Red: Not Recommended
