Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

A unique murder thriller

Chinthamani Kola Case

Malayalam cinema is contemporary in the sense that it attempts to portray the happenings in society. Chinthamani Kola Case seeks to highlight four burning issues juxtaposed against real life incidents: quota for meritorious students in self-financing professional colleges; incidents of ragging; the murder of a teacher in front of his students; and disposal of a body cut into pieces in the backwaters of central Kerala.

The story revolves around Lal Krishna, a criminal lawyer [Suresh Gopi], who believes in his own brand of instant justice. He saves criminals from the clutches of law with his sharp arguments, only to kill them later.

The lawyer stumbles upon the gruesome murder of a village girl Chithamani [Bhawana] in a self-financing professional college, in which nine girls are arraigned as accused.

He saves the accused; and then kills the real culprits in his self-styled version of justice delivery.

The film is also a critique of our slow system of litigation in that the audience support the protagonist who is portrayed as a person who rids society of heinous crime.

Suresh Gopi has put in a brilliant performance.

He is restrained and controlled without blurting out long-ending dialogues.

Bhawana deserves kudos for her role. Thilakan [Veeramani variyar] as the hapless father of the murdered girl; Vani Vishwanath [advovate Pathammal]; Sai Kumar [Kannai Parmeshwaran] and the college girls are persuasive in their roles.

The film does not have any songs, but some rhythmic pronunciations of `slokas' arranged by Hindi singer Shaan. Raja Rathnam has cranked the camera and the fight sequences are by Mafia Sasi and Pazhani Raja.

In all, director Shaji Kailas has given a highly impressive and entertaining film.

Rishiraj Singh

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