KURUTHI, THE HOLY SLAUGHTER - EXPLANATION AND REVIEW

Source: Prime Video

Prithiviraj Sukumaran and Roshan Mathew's Malayalam thriller/suspense Kuruthi was released on 11th of August on Amazon Prime Video. The movie is themed around house invasion. 

Story of Kuruthi (Spoiler alert)

For spoiler-free review scroll down.

The story begins with the scene where a shopkeeper is killed in the dark. The second scene shows the collapse of the village bridge due to landslides and the death of few villagers. The murder of the shopkeeper comes to light as a religious issue. Ibrahim aka Ibru is a strict but confused believer of Allah. His brother Rasool is brainwashed by a villager, Kareem who teaches him to hate Hindus.

On the same night, a team of police catches the murderer who is a young boy. On their way to the station, they get attacked by two people who desperately want to hunt the boy down. All the officers scatter in different directions. One of the policemen reaches Ibru's house and shelters there with the boy for the night. Suma, a Hindu villager as usual brings food for them where she too gets stuck in the house. 

Sometime later, along with Kareem enters Liaq and his friends, the ones who attacked the police. Liaq asks the policeman to hand over the boy to him. When he refuses to do so, Liaq kills him. Karim takes him out of the house. As his last wish, the policeman takes a promise from Ibru in the name of Allah to hand that guy only to the police and not to anyone else. After the policeman dies. Liaq's team tries to enter the house. To avoid so Ibru attacks Liaq's friend with acid while Liaq attacks Ibru with a knife in this hand. Rasool already has hatred and prejudice for the boy and carries a weapon with him in case.

When Suma's brother Preman finds Kareem with Liaq, he runs off to Ibru's house where he realizes a snake bit him. To save his brother, Suma asks Ibru to take him to the hospital and let the boy go, On the heat of the argument she reveals that she hid the boy for all these days and wants him to be free as he is young. She shoots Karim and points her gun at Ibru. She leaves for the hospital with Preman and the boy. 

Liaq enters the house again after realizing that the boy escaped. Moosa, Ibru's father who keeps shut all the while agrees to take Liaq before them through the shortcut in the forest. When Rasool and Liaq climb up the hill to locate them, he reveals that the shopkeeper was his father and instigates Rasool by saying that, what he is up to is absolutely right. When Liaq asks Moosa to run the vehicle over the boy, he refuses to do so. He then asks Ibru to throw Rasool out of the vehicle. Liaq and Ibru too fall out. As Liaq's friend attacks Moosa, he runs the jeep on a tree. Kareem and the friend die. 

Ibru is set again to hand over the boy to the police but Liaq asks him to kill that boy or else he would slit Suma's throat. Just as he is about to kill the boy, Preman shoots Liaq. Ibru sets the boy free and asks him to escape. Liaq catches the boy and assaults him when Ibru attracts him with the knife but cannot kill him. The boy runs away while Liaq stays injured. Then Ibru, Suma, Preman, Moosa, and the boy set to get out of the forest. They talk about how their lives will never be the same again. Laiq who is still not dead hands over his knife to Rasool where he waits for the boy on the bridge.

(Also read: 27 BEST HINDI MYSTERY/ THRILLER MOVIES)

Analysis

Kuruthi meaning 'the holy slaughter' unfolds the deeply rooted hatred in human beings. Moosa says that we all are born out of hatred. We love to hate people and to destroy them, we can go to any extent. This is the reason for fragmentation and war among communities. Ibru represents such a person who vows to do good, yet is confused by his actions. He wanted to hand over the boy because he promised on his holy book. However, later he lets him escape. Similarly, he was against brutality but ended up hurting Liaq and his friend. He never gets a closure if what he did was wrong or right. Liaq represents a savage and stubborn being who has deeply rooted hatred and can do anything to destroy his enemy, even at the cost of his friend's life. Suma too represents a protective ideology. She is initially scared to shoot Liaq but when it comes to saving her people, she doesn't hesitate to shoot Kareem. Rasool and the boy represent the youngsters who are easily brainwashed by hate spreaders and are used to continue the hate just like Liaq's passed on to Rasool. The only one who holds the capability to analyze what is happening is Moosa who says that one spark of hatred is enough to destroy everything. This tells us that we only realize things when we get old. 

Besides the religious views, the story of Kuruthi can be implied in our regular lives too. When we discover differences in ideologies among people around us, we tend to form categories of 'us' and 'them'. Instead of simply disagreeing, we grow hatred for 'them'. Disagreement leads to enmity. We then start loving to hate them and wish for their bad. We are easily instigated by the thought of 'our' people. We teach about 'us and them' to our youngsters and pass away hate from generation to generation that eventually leads to war.

Kuruthi Review (Spoiler-free)

Kuruthi is finely executed in terms of what it wants to say and how it has been said. It is an extremely thrilling piece. The story evolves in a suspenseful manner along with unfolding the deep-rooted prejudice and hatred in the heart of people. The story of Kuruthi tells you a lot through plain speech as well as through metaphors. The movie will leave you to look for hatred around you and invalidate them. It will make you question your actions. The experience of watching Kuruthi will resonate with that of watching 'Jallikattu'. The movie has been presented with a very detailed screenplay. 

(READ JALLIKATTU REVIEW AND ANALYSIS)

Performances

Pritihivirj Sukumaran has incredibly played the role of Liaq who is supposed to be disliked. He has rightly put up the ample amount of hate and stubbornness as required. Roshan Mathew (Ibru) too has performed brilliantly. The character of Ibru is the most difficult one with the pain of losing his daughter and wife and not being able to validate/invalidate his own actions. Roshan has absolutely done justice to the character. Moosa (Mamukkoya), Kareem (Shine Tom Chacko), Preman (Manikandar Achari), the Hindu Boy Vishnu (Sagar Surya), and Suma (Srindaa) too have handled their part in their best way. The one underrated character is that of Rasool played by Naslen K Gafoor who is supposed to be an overtly violent character which he has done brilliantly.

What could have been better? 

The movie has enough characters, dialogues, and scenes without any exaggeration. There is no such incidence where unnecessary elements were placed. However, a few times the story didn't feel natural. Each time when a character is about to kill someone, the other comes by and twists the plot. Besides, the scene where Sama shoots Karim to protect Preman, the other attack scenes felt too manipulated by the directors. The scenes include when Preman shoots Liaq and when Ibru attacks Liaq. Instead of the idea of attacking 'right on time', an unplanned attack would have felt natural.

 However, all the other parts of the movie are well executed It is highly recommended to watch the movie if you love suspenseful, thriller, violent movies.

You may also want to read: 11 MUST WATCH MALAYALAM MOVIES