Kooman is one of those stories that you need to know very little about before venturing into the film. And this is because of the route that it takes simply from the point of view of constructing a thriller. It is unassuming but supremely rewarding. The screenplay standing at 150 minutes means that it is slightly on the longer side. However, if you are aware of Jeethu Joseph’s filmography and his manner of constructing a thriller then you will know that this length is justified!

The drama is a slow burn and requires a good amount of patience to sink your teeth in it. This is a typical Jeethu Joseph narrative wherein the world building does take its fair share of time. So the focus is on the protagonist who is a cop having a sharp mind and an even bigger ego. He finds himself in the middle of a village on the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border where a series of unrelated crimes do take place. These are written so half-heartedly and deliberately so, that these seem like passing events. The politics surrounding the area is nicely tapped upon and tactfully linked to the main plot.

Things slowly begin to gather steam after an incident that dabbles with the ego of the protagonist wherein he starts committing crimes himself in a game of one-upmanship. However, there are Easter eggs in store in the second hour, something that you do associate with a Jeethu Joseph film. A massive twist at the halfway mark changes the complexion of the thriller which then begins to head in a different direction. Some of the passing references in the first hour are cleverly used as foreshadowing.

But the true genius of the filmmaker lies in the tonal shift that takes place towards the end. It is here that I saw a filmmaker successfully breaking a conventional mold of a mystery thriller. So while the ongoing investigation is interesting in itself, the seamless tonal shift leads up to a shocking revelation in the final act that will remind you of the Kannada film Vikrant Rona in its tonality. But the difference between Vikrant Rona and Kooman is that the former was mounted on top of a folklore from the very beginning, while Kooman has a tonal shift that may have been a risky proposition to begin with, yet the effectiveness with which it is done makes for an engrossing and awe-inspiring watch. In other words, the drama breaks the mold of a conventional thriller in many ways with a touch of folklore.