Kuttavum Shikshayum HD Released

 

Police investigation thrillers with the focus on investigation procedures seem to be having a moment now. Kuttavum Shikshayum is based on the investigation into a real life jewellery shop robbery that real life policeman Sibi Thomas undertook, and he has gone on to co-write, and do a cameo in, the film with Sreejith Divakaran. But when the Malayali viewer has seen the iconic ‘dummy to dummy’ investigation methods in Oru CBI Diary Kurippu nearly 35 years back, Kuttavum Shikshayum falls short, in spite of the exotic Rajasthani crime scene.

Asif Ali, plays CI Sajan Philip, who leads a five-member team of Kerala Police who set out to Dhanaganj on the trail of a gang who they believe is behind the robbery of about 1.5 kg of gold from a jewellery shop. Despite promises of help with their investigation, the team, which includes a motley crew of veterans and youngsters - played by Alencier, Sunny Wayne, Sharaf U deen and Senthil Krishna - have a blow hot-blow cold experience with their Rajasthani counterparts. The villagers of remote Dhanaganj are notorious for their criminal antecedents, so the local police seem to have a ‘live and let live’ equation with them, and are wary of going into the village to do a search.

The film slowly unfolds to demonstrate how policing demands patience, adjustments, adapting, diplomacy and balance, which is all fine, but this theft case doesn’t seem mysterious or interesting enough to make the investigative procedures compelling. And the climax feels slipshod and brings up troubling questions; for one, when the police do a dramatic rounding up of suspects from the village, how do they know they have the culprits among them?