‘Pradhama Drishtya Kuttakkar’ review: A clever police procedural that keeps you guessing

Published: September 11, 2026 12:23 PM IST

Updated: September 11, 2026 04:55 PM IST

There is no shortage of police investigations in Malayalam cinema. The genre has been explored from almost every possible angle, with films finding new ways to present cops, criminals, investigations and the machinery of the law. Shahad’s ‘Pradhama Drishtya Kuttakkar’ works within the same familiar territory, but its question is slightly different: what if being trained to understand an investigation also means knowing exactly how to stay ahead of one?

The title, which translates to ‘prima facie guilty’, gives away the film’s preoccupation. Prima facie evidence can be enough to treat someone as an accused, but it does not necessarily establish guilt. In ‘Pradhama Drishtya Kuttakkar’, that distinction becomes increasingly important as the investigation closes in on its own police characters.

Aleena (Parvathy Thiruvothu) is at the centre of it. She joins the police force as a constable through a compassionate appointment after the death of her husband and soon finds herself caught up in a case involving a custodial death and murder. The police station becomes the principal setting for the proceedings, and the film makes good use of the confined space. There is always the feeling that someone is watching, figuring something out or trying to stay ahead of what might come next.

That is where the film is most effective. Its characters are police personnel themselves, so they know how an investigation works. They know what questions could be asked, what details might attract suspicion and how a seemingly harmless mistake could expose something much bigger. The tension comes from watching them use that knowledge to their advantage.

There is a faint echo of ‘Drishyam’ in this aspect, though the story here is very different. The similarity is in the pleasure of watching characters anticipate the investigation and make their next move before the investigators can get there.

Shahad also does not waste much time getting the story going. The premise is established and the film moves on. That sense of movement helps the first half, which steadily builds its tension without getting buried under procedural details. The performances are what make the whole thing convincing. Parvathy brings the right restraint to Aleena, while Sidharth Bharathan, Mathew Thomas and Unnimaya Prasad fit naturally into the ensemble. Mathew Thomas is particularly enjoyable in a more mature role. Much of his work so far has been associated with younger characters, so seeing him in a part like this is a welcome change. He does not overplay the maturity of the character, which makes the performance work.

Then there is Vijayaraghavan as DySP Harris Meeran. Harris is the kind of officer who has been around long enough to notice things almost instinctively. Experience has made him sharp, and Vijayaraghavan plays that quality without turning him into the usual larger-than-life police officer.

The Harris-Aleena dynamic is one of the film’s best elements. Harris has experience on his side; Aleena does not. Watching a seasoned officer and a relatively inexperienced cop try to stay ahead of each other gives the investigation an additional layer. It is not necessarily about who is smarter. It is about who can anticipate the other person better.

The film does, however, lose some of its grip in the second half. Once the investigation reaches the point where its various threads need to be tied together, there is a visible hurry to get there. Details are laid out one after another, and some of the material could have been left out. The pattern of the film also becomes easier to recognise as it progresses, making some of the developments less surprising than they might have been.

The eventual unraveling is still satisfying, and the film does have a cleverness to its resolution. But there are stretches in the latter half where a tighter edit would have helped. The film does not necessarily feel like a 2-hour-41-minute watch, though, because the central investigation continues to hold attention.

What keeps it from slipping into unnecessary melodrama is the cast. The performances remain grounded even when the situations themselves become increasingly dramatic. That naturalism is arguably the film’s biggest asset.

More importantly, ‘Pradhama Drishtya Kuttakkar’ does not take the audience by the hand and explain who is right and who is wrong. Its characters make choices, the law has its own understanding of those choices, and the two do not always meet. The film leaves that uncomfortable gap intact.

It is not an investigative thriller built around a maze of clues that demands every detail be examined. Nor does it need to be. There is enough in its premise and characters to keep the investigation interesting, and enough ambiguity in its moral questions to leave something to think about after the case is closed. For a genre that has been done so often in Malayalam cinema, that is a fairly good place to start.