Ananthan Kaadu

One of the highly charged sequences in Ananthan Kaadu, directed by Jiyen Krishnakumar and written by Murali Gopy, happens inside a college campus in Thiruvananthapuram in the early 1990s. This “mass” scene featuring the screenwriter himself in a highly imaginary scenario, hardly has any connection with the main plot, almost as if it accidentally got mixed into this film from the edits of some other film. Its only intention appears to be to inject some regressive political points into the narrative. This particular sequence might not be surprising for those who have watched Tiyaan (2017), the previous team-up of Jiyen Krishnakumar and Murali Gopy, which had its share of regressive politics packaged in the garb of a progressive film.

Ananthan Kaadu takes us back to the Sri Lankan civil war, when several crores of people were beaten, killed and raped. The initial stretches, featuring rebel group leader Vetri (Arya) and his gang being ambushed by the Sri Lankan Army, show officers behaving like sexual predators and killing machines. Right when you gear up for a film on one of the darkest chapters in Sri Lankan history, it turns into a formulaic revenge thriller. In 1989, during the Sri Lankan war, Vetri (Arya) loses his family and escapes to Kerala seeking a life where his identity is hidden. Krishnan Kutty (Indrans) and his team take him in. The group, which works as mercenaries for Kerala Chief Minister KK Menon (Vijayaraghavan), also run a music troupe as a cover.

Ananthan Kaadu begins with an extensive sequence of mass violence, much like writer Murali Gopy’s previous film L2: Empuraan. If Empuraan opened with disturbing visuals inspired by the Godhra riots, the lens this time turns towards the brutality inflicted on Tamil civilians during the Sri Lankan Civil War. The camera shows little restraint as helpless people, including children, are lined up and shot at point-blank range, women are assaulted, and makeshift homes are set ablaze. Among the victims is the protagonist’s mother.