Oru Kuprasidha Payyan

Madhupal's Oru Kuprasidha Payyan is a film with a tried and tested plot. It succeeds not because of the uniqueness of the story it has to tell, but because of the way in which it is told, as well as the strong performances from all the leads.

The first half of the film is primarily introductory. A familiar "innocent man framed for a crime he didn't commit" story is set but the way it unfolds keeps one guessing as to what would happen next. The protagonist, played by Tovino, is sympathetic enough to get one invested in the story.

Ajayan, the protagonist, is not a traditional hero. He is weak. He is beaten-up. He confesses to a crime he didn't commit due to torture. He is assaulted in prison. He has been wronged and it is clear there is little he can do about it on his own.

It is in the second half that the film changes pace, turning into a courtroom drama. Much like 12 Angry Men, Oru Kuprasidha Payyan is not about proving who did commit the murder but about providing enough doubt as to whether the protagonist was really the one who did it.

The brilliance in the second half owes to the character of Hanna Elizabeth, played by Nimisha Sajayan. She is made the advocate of our protagonist. As a heroine, she is similar to Shelley Duvall's character in The Shining. She is timid, passive and seems unlikely to succeed against her misogynistic old professor played by Nedumudi Venu, who has clearly got in her head with his mind games.

These very human qualities are what make us root for Hanna. She is not only fighting a police system that wants to convict an easy target and a sickeningly smug old professor, she is also fighting her own doubts and fears as well.

Oru Kuprasidha Payyan as a film also paints the picture of the modern trial. A murder left unsolved for long, a media outrage that demands justice and policemen pressurized into arresting an easy target in hope of protecting their own image. It's a story that is all too real in this day and age and the film expertly triggers outrage at this injustice from the audience.

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