Official Trailer:

A quiet village. Many have left the place. Only two families left. Both families have lost their dear ones in a landslide. They live in harmony and peace. Even though they belong to different religion, there is a possibility of marriage between the Muslim widower and the Hindu women in the air. Much like a garden of Eden. Then one night, snake, the religious hatred, enters this, Eden. The snake and the apple transform their relationships as the tension rises and the crisis deepens. True traits come out in the open, a side of the person that is never seen earlier. Kuruthi, takes the home invasion thriller genre and beautifully constructs a socio-thriller drama. One can just watch it as a riveting thriller without getting caught on the religious conflict that is boldly handled by the director and the writer.

Kuruthi starts slow, takes little bit time to present us the setup. From the time the inspector crashes through the door with the accused, it is pulsating till the end, keeping you on the edge. Director and the writer don’t go in for subtlety and I think they made the right choice considering the subject matter. No taking sides, no holds barred approach, or toning down the violence, laying out all sides in the open.  As the crisis develops, characters’ beliefs get challenged, and gets tested. A person is religious only if he or she protects it at any cost even if it requires use of force and violence? Path of justice is an eye for an eye? Pull down their religious structures because they pulled down ours? Is correcting a mistake by another mistake considered justice? The snake that enters the village of Eden not only awakens the dormant feelings of the characters in the movie but also inside us.

Hats off to director, and the writer to pull-off something like this. Dialogues are bold and only in Malayalam movies you get to hear them. They have accomplished a balancing act without taking sides. It would have been more balanced if they had shown the crime perpetrated by the accused rather than just referring to it and show accused also possessing a weapon towards the end on the bridge. These are only minor blemishes and in no way a deal breaker. A stellar cast and a great performance from everyone. Background score and cinematography follows the vision of the director.

The characters, the scenes, and the dialogues keeps playing with our minds and in the end, we are left wondering. How a small spark is transformed into a raging fire. Is Religion above Humanity? Is violence and killing justified in the name of religion? Replace the village with India in Kuruthi, it is a sad commentary about us, our country. Us vs Them politics is polarizing and dividing us. It has awakened the dormant snake of hatred in majority of our population. It is hard to have a conversation now without using the M word. Religious hatred has entered both public and private space. The underlying question is why do you HATE someone who is different from you? Because they worship a different god? Are we going to raise our children follow our path of hatred, animosity, and loathing in the name of religion? Or are we going to raise them to be human first?