Shaji Kailas’s latest Prithviraj production – Kaduva, interestingly has an omnipresent blue glare throughout the movie, almost like a light boy’s desperate attempt at stopping the movie from being made. Unfortunately for us, the light boy failed.

If the blue glare doesn’t blind you completely you’ll come to realize that the whole movie is just about the so-called hero, with no self-control, questioning the antagonist’s birth. It’s the classic’I am born to a great father, you have too many fathers’ fetish from the Shaji Kailas stable. The’born to a great father’ leitmotif is woven into every other scene, one starts to wonder what childhood trauma makes Mr.Kailas suckle constantly on this trope for sustenance.

Mr.Kailas once claimed he invented slow motion in malayalam movies and has used his invention so widely in Kaduva one starts to wonder if Amal Neerad and Mr. Kailas are the same person. Mr. Kailas seems to have discovered this new concept called the drones and has figuratively made a two thousand feet cinematographic mess out of it. He continues his camera experiments including tying the camera to the wheel of a moving car and more such acrobatics reminding one of the camera jumping into the pond with the lead actress.

Kaduva continues the fetishization of beating up policemen. Prithviraj’s character beats up as many as a battalion of cops for no real reason, in line with Lucifer, Ayyappanum Koshiyum, Drivers license and innumerable movies of past decade. It must be that once you have money and fame, the next thing superstars crave is beating up policemen. Beating up policemen with no real consequences is the holy grail of power.

The film got some bad publicity before release because the lead character played by Prithviraj delivered a nasty dialogue about parents who have differently abled children. Though the makers justified it as’human error’, one could question Prithviraj’s own judgment in delivering such a ghastly dialogue in the 21st century. But more than that one would question Prithviraj’s judgment in producing a movie like Kaduva in the 21st century. Then, Prithviraj in a recent interview while throwing shade on’realistic’ movies mentioned his desire to keep making 20th-century movies – like Kaduva, a movie that gets nothing right. If this is the type of movie the non-kanchavu smoking, non-new-gen, good old boys club of malayalam cinema keeps churning out they’ll soon sleep with the dinosaurs.

Rating: 1 star of 5 stars

Watchability: Headache inducing, unbearable