The first glimpse of Mammootty in Kannur Squad, behind a foggy windshield and in the company of men, grows spectacular as the wiper clears the mist away and reveals his face, calculatedly still. Uplifting music flows into the semi-darkness of dawn the car parks in. It is not exactly a ‘mass’ entry, just momentarily awesome. The mood of the film is more mass-lite, treading somewhere between heroic and grounded. Roby Varghese Raj, the director, gives a few cinematic strokes, minimal and essential, to the real story of a police squad in Kerala, played by Mammootty and his team of three men. At more than 160 minutes, the film stays engaging and almost unapologetically violent, while trying to show the human element in tragedy.
Roby’s brother and actor Rony David Raj has scripted the film and plays a member of the dream squad. Shabareesh Varma and Azeez Nedumangad play the other two. Together they are George, Jayan, Shafi, and Jose (Mammootty, Rony, Shabareesh, and Azeez in that order). Their personal lives, sparing George who is said to have no family, are fleetingly shown, a testimony to the little time they have for themselves. All four are on the road, risking lives and travelling far, with very little power in their hands. It takes a little getting used to, seeing Mammootty play a subordinate to many, taking orders and hardly talking back, a contrast to his popular police characters.
Not that George is not a fighter, just rooted and extremely committed. He rarely expresses emotion, except sparks of impatience when one or the other of his men does something rash. Protective without making a scene about it, he guides the men through one of their most challenging assignments to date – catching a few criminals who killed a rich businessman, brutally attacked his family, and remain untraceable. The difficulty comes not in finding the identities but in nabbing the men who appear to spring up in new and faraway districts across the country every few days. Superintendents of Police Cholan (Kishore Kumar G) and Krishnalal (Vijayaraghavan) give the squad 10 days.
The script might have been longer, cut short to make it engaging, for some of the earlier sequences are left vague and have you guessing what might have passed. It could also be the film trying to stay realistic, while the stunts – often impossibly leaving the men alive – look unreal, and sometimes unimpressive. Mammootty on the ground, fighting off a multitude of men, is a contrast to the rooted policeman he played in Unda, who’d sometimes fall. Both the characters have Mammootty play an ordinary cop and lead a team of men in strange terrains. But Kannur Squad has him play the textbook hero in fight scenes, often singlehandedly taking on hordes of armed men, even as his younger teammates look defeated. Not that it takes away from the film’s honesty in telling the true story of a few brave men, who accomplished lots with little means.
More than their personal lives, what is saddening is the lack of respect these men get – belittled without acknowledgment of their efforts, unprivileged enough not to be able to take a flight to chase a criminal (falling below a certain rank), and so on. It seems only fair that in a film about them, they get to be superheroes, albeit with a few cinematic exaggerations including the enlivening music of Sushin Shyam.
Director Roby, who has been a cinematographer, lets Rahil take the camera in his film and pan over vast expanses of city roads and rural areas the film’s script takes you to. In one way, it is also a travel movie of sorts, where men bond. The camera also repeatedly begins with the shoes of men, as they turn corridors and walk ahead, highlighting their togetherness in every which way. Sadly, women are altogether missing in the film, save a few faces here and there as a survivor, a gun-yielding villager, and a doctor. Still, the way it is written, the absence is accounted for.
Rony, a talented actor, might consider writing more scripts. And Roby appears to have a taste in telling police stories, even though this is his debut.
Disclaimer: This review was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the series/film. TNM Editorial is independent of any business relationship the organisation may have with producers or any other members of its cast or crew.