Pulimurugan (2016)

Pulimurugan is an action film starring Mohanlal and Kamalinee Mukherjee.

It’s been a long while since we went for a movie. We only had a wedding reception chalked in to attend in the evening and so had booked to watch Aanandam in the evening. When my aunt called to ask if we could catch Pulimurugan for the morning show, we decided to go after getting the wife’s assent.

Pulimurugan has two or three strand story. There is the story of the protagonist’s life, the story of the constant struggle between man and animal for land and the exploitation of the forest by miscreants big and small. The story interlaces all of these and their meeting points make the movie interesting for me.

The protagonist of the movie is a tiger hunter but he only hunts for man-eaters. This leads him to constant skirmishes with the law, which does not allow for the killing of tigers. The protagonist turns hunter because a man-eater kills his father when he is only a child. As an adult, the same protagonist admits that it is the humans who are the real trespassers and not the animal.

The protagonist’s innocence having lived in the forest his whole life leads him to break the law transporting forest produce (sandalwood and ganja) illegally from the forest. The miscreants treat him as an asset in their trade. The protagonist at one time admits that humans are worse enemies than animals in the forest.

The last thing that everyone I asked seems to have been going on about was the wonderful action scenes. The action scenes are beautifully choreographed and shot. There are some wonderful close calls that almost take your breathe away and have you at the edge of your seats.

All in all, I loved watching the film and would recommend that you watch it too.