Kishkindha Kandam – My Flash Review!

Over the past few years, we have been seeing Malayalam films charting unchartered territories and churning out interesting stories. Kishkindha Kandam joins the list of such films where the makers showcase an out-of-the-box story in a very intriguing setting.

The film is set in an area bordering a dense forest which itself presents situations that are shown in the film not so familiar to city dwellers like us. In the opening scene, we can see people who possessed licensed firearms surrendering their arms to the police because elections have been announced in that area. This is a mandate by law it appears, which I came to know only when I saw the film. As the film progresses, we can see the overlap of the livelihoods of humans, animals, flora and fauna and the conflicts that arise. But the film is not about these conflicts which is what one would expect but, about the turmoil in a family dealing with multiple issues living in a forest.

This is one of the most intriguing stories in a film I have seen in recent times. It starts off with a missing pistol that is not surrendered by the licensee on the eve of the elections. As the story moves forward, we get to know of a missing child in that family. The story then tries to establish a connection between these two which is what dominates the day-to-day happenings in that family.

In that family, the central character is the elderly granddad who is characterised as a grumpy old man with his whims and fancies and suffering from short-term memory loss. This character is played by Vijayaraghavan in one of his finest performances, in my opinion. His demeanour and his dialogue delivery that vacillates as per his memory situation is extremely relatable. The other members of this family are the son and daughter-in-law of the grumpy old man.

The film screenplay is structured in such a way that initially, we see disparate intriguing scenes that don’t make much sense. Gradually, the mystery unfolds in terms of the missing gun, the missing child and the roles of the people involved. Asif Ali plays the role of the husband who has to play a fine balancing role between his father who has a medical condition of memory loss and his newlywed wife. Ali has been having the time of his career bagging meaty roles which he performs to perfection. Aparna Balamurali’s character as the wife who lands in a family and setting that seems very hostile, portrays the inner turmoil of the character, very well.

The last half an hour is when the film opens up and picks up speed. Otherwise, like typical Malayalam films, it is a slow burn. Bahul Ramesh, credited with the story and screenplay, is also the cinematographer for the film. His camera work is simple but brilliant as the screenplay.

Director Dinjith Aiyyathan does a fine job of translating such a complex screenplay to the big screen without letting the intrigue or mystery lag at any point. I must say that the film’s title, taken from the Ramayana, is one of the most poetic titles for a film, and one will understand the connection when one watches the film. I have mentioned this before – no other language writers have such a fine understanding of the police procedures than the Malayalam writers. This film is another proof of that. The interplay of the Police, Forest and Revenue departments in typical situations that arise in a reserve forest area is shown in a very real sense and kudos to the writer and director for the same. These scenes are real eye-opening ones.

Kishkindha Kandam is a finely made film with a very intriguing storyline and screenplay. If you like slow-burn mystery films, this is a good watch. It is now streaming on Hotstar.