Kannur Squad
Kannur Squad is a 2023 Indian Malayalam-language action thriller film directed by Roby Varghese Raj in his directorial debut, written by Muhammed Shafi and Rony David Raj, and produced by Mammootty under Mammootty Kampany. The film stars Mammootty, Azees Nedumangad, Rony David Raj, Shabareesh Varma, Kishore, and Vijayaraghavan. It is based on the real story of a team of police officers who were part of the Kannur Squad, a crime investigation unit, formed by former Kannur SP S. Sreejith IPS.
The film was officially announced in January 2023 under the tentative title Megastar 421, with the title announced by Mammootty on as Kannur Squad. Principal photography began on 27 December 2022, with filming taking place in Kannur, Kasaragod, Wayanad, Ernakulam, Athirapilly, Thiruvananthapuram, Pala, Wai, Pune, Mumbai, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Belgaum, Mangalore and Coimbatore, concluding on 6 April 2023 in Wayanad. The film's music is composed by Sushin Shyam, while the cinematography and editing are handled by Muhammed Rahil and Praveen Prabhakar.
Kannur Squad was released on 28 September 2023 and received critical acclaim from critics with praise for its cast performances, direction, script, cinematography and musical score. The film was a major commercial success and earned worldwide, emerging to become one of the highest-grossing Malayalam film of all time and the fourth highest-grossing Malayalam film of 2023.
Plot
2015: ASI George Martin and his team of CPO officers: Jose, Jayan and Shafi, known as the Kannur Squad, head out to search for a political goon, who is in a hideout in the Kannur-Virajpet forest area. They catch him, but coincidentally find the hanged body of a stranger in the forest. With the case proving to be ruled out as a suicide, George believes that the stranger was murdered and sets out to find the real perpetrator. The squad identifies the suicider as Murugan, a lorry driver, and the investigation moves to Coimbatore, where the culprit is revealed to be Murugan's wife Vanaja and her nephew Rakesh, who was actually cheated by Murugan. Shortly after this incident, Jayan is found to have taken a bribe from the sand mafia and the group gets disbanded.2017: A rich NRI businessman Abdul Wahab was dacoited and murdered in Kasaragod. Unable to find any leads, SP Manu Needhi Cholan assigns the Kannur Squad to investigate the case even though there is the shadow of the bribery scandal and there is a lot of resistance to have the group investigate this crime. The squad begins their investigation, where they capture the suspect Riyas, as he bought two SIM cards and his urine sample was found at the crime scene, and interrogates him. Riyas reveals that he used to work at a hotel in Qatar and had met the hotel owner's sons Ameer Shah and Zulfiqar Ali, who wanted money for their new business.
Riyas reveals that he found that Wahab had bundles of money, while he was working on house maintenance work and had informed Ameer and Zulfiqar, who along with the other two men Hathooda and Bambiha, barged into Wahab's house at night. They find there is no money and brutally kill Wahab, injure his son Ramzan and leave his daughter Farha assaulted by Ameer. The squad later sets out to track down the culprits, where they reach Mumbai for the investigation and learn that Ameer had made a call to Shiju Velayudhan. They track down Shiju's address and capture him. Shiju tells that Ameer and Zulfiqar had left for Bhubaneswar.
However, the squad learns that Ameer and Zulfiqar lied to Shiju about their location and they are presently in Faizabad. The squad reaches Faizabad and is assisted by constable Yogesh Yadav of the UP Police, where they learn that a person named Pawan picked up Ameer and Zulfiqar from the railway station. The squad arrives at Pawan's village in Tikri and learns that Ameer and Zulfiqar are at Hathooda's house, where they arrest Pawan after an intense battle with the villagers. The next morning, Pawan reveals that Ameer, Zulfiqar, Hathoda and Bambiha started committing robberies in order to start an ivory export trade and had set up markets in foreign countries and extended their trading to Kerala, Karnataka and other parts of India. Pawan tells that they are currently at a railway station in Payagpur.
The squad manages to capture Hathoda and Bambiha on the train leaving Payagpur. George directs Jose and Shafi to board the train, fearing that Ameer and Zulfiqar could be on the same train. Later, George and Jayakumar find out that Ameer and Zulfiqar have left from Payagpur to Babaganj and are heading to Nepal, with a possible chance of them being untraced. The squad soon finds Ameer and Zulfiqar's hideout in a forest near the India-Nepal border and an intense fight ensues, where the squad manages to arrest them with the help of Sashastra Seema Bal and bring them back to Kerala thereby completing their mission successfully and also thank Yogesh Yadav for his help and cooperation and bid farewell to him.
Cast
Production
Development
Kannur Squad marks the fourth production of Mammootty's production Mammootty Kampany, following Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam, Rorschach and Kaathal – The Core. It marked the directorial debut of cinematographer Roby Varghese Raj, who had previously worked in Puthiya Niyamam and The Great Father. The film was officially announced in January 2023 under the tentative title Megastar 421, with the title announced by Mammootty on 11 February 2023 as Kannur Squad.Rony David Raj and Roby Varghese Raj's father, C. T. Rajan, had earlier produced the Mammootty starrer Mahayanam. Rony and Muhammed Shafi had written a story on policemen during the COVID-19 lockdown, with the initial draft resembling a documentary. They decided to make it into a feature film and focus on four characters, thereby incorporating different issues related to the police system. They went through several changes by refining the script while preserving its core elements having done over 15 drafts over the course of two years. They approached Mammootty, who was impressed by the script and agreed to produce the film. The film required shooting in various locations across India and required extensive travel and other logistical aspects. Mammootty revealed in an interview that he plays an ASI in the film, which will be the first time a decade where he would play a police officer below the rank of a Sub-inspector. His other police roles were in Christopher as an ADGP, Puzhu as an IPS officer and Unda as an SI respectively. The action choreography was choreographed by Supreme Sundar, Rajashekhar, Kanal Kannan, Jolly Bastian, Run Ravi, PC Stunts, and Roby Varghese Raj.
Casting
Paragg Mehta was the casting director, marking his first Malayalam film. Lukman Avaran and Arjun Ashokan were initially considered for the roles of police officers but both declined due to scheduling conflicts. Prakash Raj and Sathyaraj were approached to play certain characters in the film. Shabeer Kallarakkal was considered for a negative role in the film, but declined as he was filming for King of Kotha at the time. Azees Nedumangad received a call from Mammootty's associate George about playing the police officer in the film. He previously worked with Mammootty in Parole, One and CBI 5: The Brain. Following the narration, he immediately accepted the role as he believed it was a shift from his earlier roles.Arjun Radhakrishnan was cast to play the antagonist, having earlier played roles in Jhund and the webseries Rocket Boys. Roby Varghese cast him after seeing his performances in the films Pada and Dear Friend. Manohar Pandey, who appeared in Adipurush and Gangubhai Kathiawadi was cast to play a key role. Ankit Madhav who originally hails from Pattambi was cast to play a Uttar Pradesh Police constable. To prepare for the character, he had conferred with a diction coach and had seen shows featuring North Indian policemen. His previously appeared in several Hindi ads and shows that made him comfortable speaking the language. Deepak Parambol, who was simultaneously shooting for Chaver and Kasargold, also joined the cast.
Filming
began on in Pala. Mammootty joined production on. The Pune schedule began on. Prior to Pune, filming took place in Wai. The team had a five-day schedule in Pune, filming in the old city areas, Katraj Tunnel and Pune Camp. The Mumbai schedule was completed in the first week of March 2023. It was followed by a 10-day schedule in Wayanad. After the completion of the Wayanad schedule, the team relocated to Kochi for its last schedule shoot at the Willingdon Island, Kochi. Some portions of filming took place in Maharaja's College, Ernakulam. The entire filming wrapped on in Wayanad after 91 days of shooting. The entire filming took place in Kannur, Kasaragod, Wayanad, Ernakulam, Athirappilly, Thiruvananthapuram, Pala, Wai, Pune, Mumbai, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Belgaum, Mangalore and Coimbatore. Post-production began on 16 April 2023 and lasted for 5–6 months. According to Rony David Raj, the film's was budgeted between 30–32 crore.Themes and influences
Kannur Squad is influenced by the police squad that originated in Kannur and came to be known as the Kannur Squad formed by the Kerala Transport Commissioner, ADGP S. Sreejith, who handpicked and groomed the officers while he was SP in the district and was created as an investigation unit. The squad is still operational and has a total of nine members, consisting of Additional SI Mathew Jose, and senior CPOs Raphy Ahmed M A, Vinodkumar P, Manojkumar K, Sunilkumar C, Jayarajan K, Reji Skaria, Rajasekar C K, and led by ASI Baby George.The film focuses on four police officers, played by Mammootty, Rony David Raj, Shabaresh Varma, and Azeez Nedumangad. Mammooty plays George Martin, who is an ASI, and Rony David Raj, Shabaresh Varma, and Azeez Nedumangad play the driver and the two CPOs. Rony David Raj and Muhammed Shafi contacted the officers of the Kannur Squad. During their conversations, the officers shared details on different cases they had looked into and investigated. Rony David and Shafi were particularly interested in one case that caught their attention. S. Sreejith later met with Roby Varghese, Rony David and Shafi during the post-production phase.