Amazon Prime Video has released yet another Malayalam thriller, ‘Kuruthi’, directly for streaming on the OTT. The movie was released on the digital platform last night and the movie has been buzzing throughout the morning. While the reviews of the movie suggest that the film is quite exceptional – we think that the film is doing so well because of one man’s brilliant performance – Prithviraj Sukumaran as the deranged Laiq. Don’t get us wrong, the film has a few other good elements including (but not limited to) the film script, Mamukkoya’s brilliant satirical commentary, Roshan Mathew’s Ibrahim going through his crisis in faith, the underlying tension beneath the surface of two communities, etc. – but when Prithviraj comes on screen, you can’t help but feel the tension build-up. So, let’s get into it.
Prithviraj’s Laiq would be an intimidating person in real life, but not very interesting. However, over the course of the film, Prithviraj manages to make a radicalized man interesting through his expressions and actions. Kuruthi shows us how a person gets radicalized, turns to violence when people around him fail him and eventually take even worse drastic measures. And Prtihviraj’s portrayal of Laiq shows us the complexity of such a person through his eyes and facial expressions.
Laiq’s backstory starts off predictably. He grew up in an environment which slowly radicalized him, while still learning right from wrong from his shopkeeper father (we assume this is similar to Rasool’s radicalisation, Ibrahim’s brother) Laiq, however, is more vocal about the issues his community face and never afraid to speak his mind. When he ends up heading an organisation, his father sends him abroad so that he won’t get into any more altercations. However, he gets into a fight with a man for mocking his faith and he ends up getting kicked out of the country. After facing Islamophobia on multiple fronts, he had enough, but he still didn’t do anything drastic for his father’s sake. When a radicalized Hindu boy stabs his father to death, Laiq finally snaps and turns to hate. His father’s death changes the way he perceives his actions concerning his faith and he starts to justify what he is doing by saying that he is right, as God is behind him.
When we first meet Laiq, he has gone through all this and you can see all of it on his face. We know there is an unhinged man behind those eyes, his internal violence always bubbling away at the surface but he prefers diplomacy when dealing with people who follow his faith. This shows that there is a (somewhat) reasonable man behind all that madness, a man who can twist words of logic and faith for his own means. He meets Rasool, who was slowly being radicalized by Kareem and starts to turn the boy towards his way of thinking. When Ibrahim stabs him and leaves him for dead, he still manages to push his raging hate onto Rasool, who can complete “the mission” even after he is gone.
Of course, there is more to the character, but we suggest you guys check out Kuruthi on Amazon Prime Video to have a better idea about the character.
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