Film: 10 Kalpanakal
Starring: Anoop Menon, Meera Jasmine, Kaniha
Direction: One of the classic clichés in our cinema for decades has been the policemen who arrive late at the climax, accompanied by the typical drum beat background score, to prevent the hero from taking law into his hands and meting out justice on his own. But, they have also made it a point to arrive only after the hero had beaten the villains to pulp, as a means of catharsis to him and the viewers.
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Of late though, the trend in Malayalam cinema has been about the cops that never appear. It has been about protagonists ruing the limitations of our justice system and then proceeding to judge, convict and execute those whom they deem are villains, according to their whims and fancies. Of this ilk were films like ‘Amar Akbar Antony’ and ‘Puthiya Niyamam’. In that illustrious line comes ’10 Kalpanakal’ (Ten Commandments).
Directed by film editor Don Max, the film is structured as the recollections of a specific case by IPS officer Shaziya Akbar (Meera Jasmine). She tells the story of a series of gruesome murders of young girls, all executed in similar fashion. Victor (Prashant Narayanan), suspected to be the psychotic serial killer, has a past connection to Davis George (Anoop Menon), a ‘god-fearing’ forest officer, a family man, living in Thovala.
The investigation itself is shot in a loud, music video-ish style, with the investigative officers arriving in a vehicle stylishly emblazoned ‘Special Investigation Team’. Really, this is the perfect vehicle for discreet investigations.
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With the suspect pointed out to us quite early on and enough sequences of his unabashed cruelty to prime our minds, the script proceeds to tell us how the police officers involved in the investigation are helpless due to the insistence of ‘proofs’ by the judiciary. That sets the stage for some major case-building on the need for extra-judicial measures, on the need to go beyond this boring old style of going by the proof.
’10 Kalpanakal’ gives out a dangerous message, but with some popular resonance. It’s a wonder how such messages escape the scrutiny of the censor board, which is at other times scissor-happy over questions of fake morality.
EOM
EOM