Karuppu: Flawed yet beautiful humans are the soul of Suriya-Trisha Krishnan's film, not guardian deities

RJ Balaji's Suriya and Trisha Krishnan-starrer Karuppu might be about a guardian deity but the film's strength lies in its humans. Here's why.

On the surface, RJ Balaji’s Karuppu almost plays out like every other mass masala film you have seen growing up. The more the hero is painted into a corner, the more the villain challenges the hero, the more people around him suffer, the more he rises to save the day. But what do you do when your protagonist is a literal guardian deity and not just a demigod that cinema loves to prop up? You rely on the beauty and ugliness of humanity around him. *Spoilers ahead*

What is Karuppu all about?

Indrans, Anagha and Suriya in stills from RJ Balaji's Karuppu.

Baby Kannan (Balaji) is the kind of lawyer you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy. Irrespective of your woes, he will squeeze out every last remaining drop of your savings and smile devilishly while at it. The court he works at reflects his rotten core. Not more than ten people can climb its stairs at a time, for fear of it falling, and the judge is always wary of when the ceiling will crumble and kill him. This decayed court and this corrupt lawyer are the ones that those having the worst time of their lives turn to, only to find that their lives can always get infinitely worse.

Karuppu might be about the heroism of the titular God, but its heart lies in its humans. The film begins by introducing us to Binu (Anagha Maaya Ravi) and her father, Sukumaran (Indrans), who travel from Kerala to Tamil Nadu. Binu needs a liver transplant, and her father hopes the 60 sovereign gold they have is enough to cover the cost. Except, it gets stolen. And then begins the grind of approaching the police and going to court just to get the recovered gold back. Day after day, Binu and Sukumaran feed Baby and his team biryani. Their bills go up, but the court never works in their favour.

Some might call the direction the film takes next pessimistic, but inside this mass film, Balaji takes a moment to reflect on reality. Balaji, Indrans, and Anagha sell it to you so well that your heart breaks when even God cannot save humans from themselves. Sukumaran eventually gets back his stolen gold by legal means, but it’s too late. A man who was once so innocent has been proven wrong. Saravanan/Karuppu might have followed the law to the T, but at what cost, questions Baby. The God, who previously promised the lawyer he wouldn’t use his powers, is only able to bring about any real justice when he does.

It might be too late for Binu and Sukumaran, but a man struggling to prove he has been alive for 30 years and a woman who wants to put her powerful abuser behind bars, only finally receive justice when Karuppu wields his power. At one point, Preethi asks the deity why he couldn’t step in earlier, when he saw people struggling for justice, and he almost defensively answers that he has always been there; she didn’t know it. The film exposes humanity in all its beauty and ugliness, happiness and sorrow, love and heartbreak through its characters, who remain its soul.

Balaji’s Karuppu seems to say that, for people to receive justice in this country on time, divine intervention is needed. And even then, there’s only so much a celestial being can do when humans are hell-bent on ruining themselves. If that’s not an apt depiction, I don’t know what is.