Off late the thriller movies that come out of Malluwood are top notch. Probably the stupendous success of Drishyam has lent a fresh breath to this genre. Garudan is the latest offering in this genre and is quite up there when it comes to story telling and presentation. The story begins with a college girl getting assaulted in a rainy evening and basis eyewitness accounts and DNA tests, the culprit is caught quite easily by the police. The way they collect DNA samples, would that be admissible in court and all those nitty gritty loopholes apart, the culprit is sentenced to prison immediately. His entire world collapses, having been shunt out by his own family and friends, losing out on his job and even subjected to routine assault within jail premises as well. After finishing the sentence, he comes out and tries to reconcile with his family who would’ve nothing to do with him. He is humiliated wherever he goes and one fine day, a very particular day as well, he decides to file a lawsuit against the verdict for which he had served the sentence. Interestingly, during his jail term, he seems to have educated himself on legal proceedings and appears to defend his case himself and does he do a good job of it! He successfully manages to not just redeem the result in his favor but also manages to claim compensation from the very police who arrested him. The roles seem reversed with the police guy, having retired on the very day when the case was reopened, is set to lose out not just on his retirals but his entire savings and house as well, as compensation to be paid and bang at this juncture comes the interval. Typically, the first half itself could’ve been stretched to make an entire movie and makes one wonder what is in store for second half.
For major portions of second half, the story meanders about how the police guys goes in a downward spiral of self-destruction. His upright approach in dealing with a corrupt politician who is hell bent on getting his pound of flesh only adds to his misery. With every step and every action taken by the police guy, he ends up digging his own grave deeper and deeper and towards the climax, he even gets arrested for the same crime for which he had the other guy arrested. Interestingly, the same person, who got convicted and later acquitted, appears to represent the police officer, suggesting that pleading insanity is the only way out for the police and the twist that is revealed, sets up for a surprising finish.
Suresh Gopi as the police guy and Biju as the person who gets arrested takes up major screen space. Overall, the movie is decently paced, and I would love to read the script as a novel. Would’ve still entertained as much and even more.
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