KATTALAN – Review

Directed by :Paul George
Written by:Paul George,Joby Varghese,Jero Jacob,
Dialogues by:Unni R.
Produced by:Shareef Muhammed
Starring:Antony Varghese,Siddique,Jagadish,Kabir Duhan Singh,Sunil,Raj Tirandasu,Dushara Vijayan,Hanan Shah,Parth Tiwari,Hipster,Harishankar Narayanan,Shaji Shahid,Anson Paul
Cinematography:Renadive
Additional Cinematography:Chandru Selvaraj,Sudeep Elamon
Music by
Songs:B. Ajaneesh Loknath,Ravi Basrur
Score:Ravi Basrur
Production company:Cubes Entertainments
Release date:28 May 2026

Kattalan is a Malayalam-language action thriller film written and directed by Paul George, and produced by Shareef Muhammed under the banner of Cubes Entertainments. The film stars Antony Varghese, Siddique, Jagadish, Kabir Duhan Singh, Sunil, Raj Tirandasu, Dushara Vijayan, Hanan Shah, Parth Tiwari, Hipster, Harishankar Narayanan, Shaji Shahid and Anson Paul.The music is composed by Ravi Basrur and B. Ajaneesh Loknath, with cinematography by Renadive and editing by Shameer Muhammed.

The film dives into the world of an ivory trade cartel and the bloody rivalries that fuel it. If you’re thinking ‘Pushpa’ vibes, you’re not wrong — that’s clearly the template here. On paper, it should’ve been a gritty, massy entertainer. In execution, it’s a classic case of style over substance.

Technically, the film is solid. The production value is evident in every frame, and you can see where the money went. The action blocks are well choreographed — clean, ambitious, and clearly mounted on a big canvas. But therein lies the problem: it’s overloaded with action. Too many set pieces back-to-back, and very few of them actually land. Without emotional stakes or a rousing mass moment to anchor them, the fights start to feel numbing rather than thrilling.

Antony Varghese Pepe, unfortunately, feels miscast here. An action film like this demands swag — that intangible screen presence that makes audiences whistle. Pepe comes off swagless, and without that swagger, the “mass” elevation scenes fall flat. The rest of the cast is terrific and does what they can, but they’re let down by the writing. There are a few cameos and cinematic-universe teases thrown in, but none of them land with the impact they should.

Ravi Basrur delivers a top-notch score, as expected. It’s loud, energetic, and technically brilliant. But great BGM can’t save weak scenes. Because the emotional beats aren’t written well, the music never gets a chance to truly elevate the film. It feels like a Ferrari stuck in first gear.

Emotional depth; This is where the film collapses. The first half sets things up decently, but the second half is weakly written and meandering. There’s no emotional depth to make you invest in the cartel war or the characters caught in it. For an action film to work, you need to feel the punches — literally and emotionally. Here, you don’t. It’s all surface, no soul.
The film tries to ride the current pan-Indian trend of building a cinematic universe, but the execution feels forced and half-baked.

There are 2-3 cameos slotted in, clearly meant to be whistle-worthy moments. The problem is they lack proper buildup. A good cameo needs context — you need to earn that hero entry with anticipation and payoff. Here, the characters just show up, deliver a line or two, and exit. Because the script doesn’t give them emotional weight or narrative purpose, the theater goes silent instead of erupting. It feels like fan-service done for a trailer shot, not for the story.

Same issue with the “universe elements.” There are references and visual callbacks meant to tie this film to a larger world, probably setting up future installments. But without a strong emotional core in this film itself, those connections feel like dead weight.

Bottom line

An impactless action film that’s technically slick but emotionally weak.