Crime and punishment - Kuttavum, shikshayum (review)

Recently, I watched a good movie on Netflix. It is in Malayalam but I am sure there are dubbed versions or subtitles that are good enough.

Official trailer

What the movie is about

The movie is based on a real-life story about a group of police personnel who traveled to the north of India to nab a gang of robbers.
The story takes place in Kerala. A famous jewelry shop is robbed and the police try to question the locals about it and are misled by a few people but when they question the suspects, they realize that it could be a very confusing case.

The interesting fact is that the police is very adept in using the modern technology and with it, they understand that the robbery was performed by a gang of people not native to the state but the challenge is to travel to a far away state in the north of India and to locate the thieves in a remote village that even the police fears because the village is home to criminals who had killed policemen earlier.

The policemen travel in spite of difficulties and try to befriend the locals with the help of a local policeman and even succeed in nabbing a thief who had partnered in stealing but he succeeds in escaping.

Undeterred by this, they visit the village which is really portrayed well as being an eerie place and nab the thieves and barely escape the attack by the womenfolk who nearly hit them with axes. (phew, that was a scary scene).

The police come back to the state with the thieves but are released on bail by powerful people who are the real force behind these thieves.

The policemen complain about the system and how they had risked their lives to nab the thieves and the last scene shows them trying to catch a conman. Duty calls.

Crime and punishment is an apt title for this movie because it shows that punishment is not being given to the thieves in spite of the crime. It is high time that such loopholes are removed and justice is served.

The script of the movie is written by Sibi Thomas, a real-time policeman who had been part of the actual adventure. He has done justice to the movie and it is worth watching and far better than all the dramatic police stories that I have watched previously.

The actors Asif Ali, Sunny Wayne, Sharafuddin. Alancier and others have done a good job. What is commendable is that songs are not thrown in to please the masala audience. The personal lives are not shown either. It would have been a burden on the audience and that is why the Malayalam movie industry is so vastly different from the usual masala movies from other parts of India.

If you like watching police movies or thrillers, then this movie is a good watch.

If you expect horror and gory scenes, then this movie will be disappointing for you because it is more about how the police crack a theft and not about the violence of the highest order.