Kurup movie review: Dulquer Salmaan cannot redeem this underwhelming crime thriller

Kurup is a crime thriller directed by Srinath Rajendran with Dulquer Salman in the title role and is based on the life real-life criminal Sukumara Kurup. Ever since the announcement of this movie in 2018 the hype for this movie has slowly been building mostly because of the enigma surrounding the life and crimes of the man this movie is based on. It is apart of Kerala culture and there have been other movies that have been inspired by his crimes.

For those unaware Sukumara Kurup was a con man who in 1984 faked his own death by killing a look-alike in order to claim a life insurance policy. Ever since he has been on the run despite a nationwide manhunt even involving international agencies like Interpol, Kurup still remains Indian's longest wanted fugitive.

Director Srinath Rajendran uses five narrators to tell his version of Kurup's life the first being narrated by his friend in the air force played by Sunny Wayne. His performance was rather enjoyable as it has been a while since he has done a good role. The second part is narrated by his wife played by Sobhita Dhulipala who does the best with what she is given.

The third part was by one of his confidants played excellently by Shine Chacko Tom, the fourth by the chief investigation officer played by Indrajit Sukumaran. In fact, it is in this part the movie actually starts to pick up but unfortunately the last part narrated by Kurup himself destroys the momentum by turning the movie into a badly made version of the 2002 movie 'Catch me if you Can' with added elements from Don 2.

Kurup is not a bad movie, in fact, it has solid acting, good editing, and camera work, and great production value all of these should be appreciated. However, it is very underwhelming and bloated. There are elements within the story that manage to intrigue but the movie constantly shoots itself in the foot by focusing on the wrong aspects like how it keeps pointlessly trying to make Kurup out to be a larger than life character when the reason the movie was made in the first place was that the actual Kurup was already interesting.

The music in the movie is at times is a problem as it does not always match with the time period the movie is based in. Also can directors stop making Dulquer Salam sing? The song 'Dingiri Dingale' needed to autotune, and if they used it maybe use it more.

Dulquer Salman gives a solid performance as he does really balance the dark sides of Kurup with his natural charm and it really shines through when the movie focuses on the man rather than the legend. Had the movie mixed up the narrative and cut down the bloated screenplay the movie could have managed to at least be a solid crime thriller