Kannur Squad

All departments fire in equal measure in making Mammootty's police procedural a gripping theatrical watch. Kannur Squad also serves as a reminder of the challenges faced by duty-bound police officers, while keeping the audience hooked to the engaging narrative as a team of four cops chase four elusive criminals across the country.

Kannur Squad works much better as a story of resilient police officers than an 'action movie'. It's impressive how Mammootty endeavours to deliver a performance devoid of repetitiveness, and the film manages to find a neat balance between commercial and realistic cinema sensibilities.

Kannur Squad has sequences – the fight scenes, in particular – which raise the tempo of the film every now and then. The presence of a veteran like Mammootty at the forefront takes the film a notch higher, and while the script may seem clichéd at times, it succeeds in holding the viewer's attention.

Roby Varghese Raj's Kannur Squad, starring Mammootty in the lead role, is undoubtedly a solid police procedural that unfolds at a measured tempo, avoiding excessive dramatisation. However, its notable resemblances to earlier films within the same genre prevent it from being truly fresh.

The mood of the film is more mass-lite, treading somewhere between heroic and grounded. At more than 160 minutes, the film stays engaging and almost unapologetically violent, while trying to show the human element in tragedy.

What works in this film's favour is the fast-paced second half, which comes as a surprise. While the whole movie could have benefitted from a tighter script, particularly before the interval, the pace picks up. Mammootty's star power is unmissable and he has some good 'massy' dialogues, but the other actors also have backstories that give their characters some weight.