‘Kaattaan’ review: Vijay Sethupathi’s dead man lives many lives in M Manikandan’s intriguing series

In his 2011 Man Booker Prize-winning novel ‘The Sense of an Ending’, Julian Barnes writes about the role of corroboration in how we remember a life. He writes that what youngsters fail to envision about old age is that discovering, “for example, that as witnesses to your life diminish, there is less corroboration, and therefore less certainty as to what you are or have been.” It’s hard not to think of this perception of life while watching M Manikandan’s intriguing new JioHotstar series, Muthu Engira Kaattaan, a ten-episode saga that takes us through many corroborations of a truly spectacular life one dead man had led.

We begin a week before a police station shuts down, owing to a prolonged lack of cases. A cop, displeased by the news, finds at a desolate foothill something that would forever change his life and the fate of his unit: the severed head of a mysterious man who seems to have died with a frightful grin. An investigation into the head (this is how we are introduced to actor Vijay Sethupathi) takes the cops on a fascinating journey in this thrilling rumination on one man and his multiple identities.

The characters at the Periyaveerampatti police station are distinct with their own quirks. M Kaalai Pandiyan (Vadivel Murugan) is a part-time cop and a full-time goat rearer, or that’s how his boss, Sub Inspector Sidharthan (Muthukumar), puts it. For Kaalai, the news of the station shutting down means he would soon have to choose between shepherding and being a cop, and being a cop would then mean moving out of his hometown. Sidharthan also likes the calm and quiet of his police station, which is probably why he would always seem too relaxed, uttering English phrases now and then — like “Please take care of your health” to an elderly woman who doesn’t understand English — or asking for permission before he investigates someone’s belongings or before clicking a picture. Sidharthan then becomes a stark departure from the routine, brutish Tamil cinema cops; here, the cops treat fellow human beings with utmost respect and trust — remember Manikandan’s humanisation of a cop in his acclaimed Kadaisi Vivasayi? The third cop who joins the investigation, Thangamudi (Singam Puli), however, is eager to work at a real police station that’s bustling with activity, though he is clearly the laziest of the lot.

A still from ‘Kaattaan’
| Photo Credit:
JioHotstar

Sidharthan, with the help of a localite (Balaji Sakthivel stars as a perverted elderly villager), figures out that the severed head belongs to Muthu, a man who once worked as a bodyguard with a travelling dance troupe. Meanwhile, Kaalai and his wife dine at a local hotel, whose owner surprisingly narrates the story of how Muthu paid huge sums to buy the parotta stall from his former, cruel boss and made him the owner of the stall. More accounts of Muthu emerge as the cops follow the trails. Muthu was once a watch mechanic hired by a North Indian man from Mumbai; he was also an elephant mahout in Kerala who became a local MLA’s trusted henchman; he was also a strange tempo driver who bought goat droppings from villagers with money; and many more. A key detail that emerges through all these accounts is that Muthu was also a wealthy man who carelessly spent his money.

He was an enigma of too many shades. He was a man of many extremities, and at times, even contradictory. On one end, he seems to have taken great pleasure in the quietness of life, but on the other, he never hesitated to show you why he’s called ‘Kaattaan’, meaning a wild ruffian. He has no family to care for, but shows much loyalty to a do-gooder businessman, Sivettan (Milind Soman), whose orphanage Muthu managed for a few years. He was overcome with guilt, grief and remorse, and refused to look back at the painful path he had travelled in, but, as we soon realise, the past never lost its grip on his mind.

He was a peripatetic kindred soul who wandered along with no anchor to his life, and yet, when love knocked on his door for a second time, Muthu accepted it with open arms, hoping to live for a few fleeting moments the dreamy life of those who could afford to grow roots.

A man is a sum of all his actions, thoughts, and contradictions, and the most fascinating aspect of Kaattaan is how it captures the pluralities of man through these accounts. It’s a fascinating portrait of a man who lived the life of ten men. Therefore, it is something to witness how one picture of a headless corpse becomes a picture of a deity at a hotel, a symbol of vengeance, a closure to those awaiting his return, and a reminder of all those who come from somewhere, cross our paths, only to take us somewhere else.

In the final episodes, when the many arcs of Muthu converge, it makes for a violent action extravaganza that you don’t expect from Manikandan. Who thought that even he would pick up the Mocobot? In his television debut, the director shows a distinct knack for creating an atmosphere where Muthu’s many extremes could thrive. The tone and tempo of the series feel appropriate for the longer format. Manikandan (writing alongside B Ajithkumar and La Rajkumar) also avoids cliches, like ending the episodes with contrived cliffhangers, and lets the intrigue of Muthu’s identity and the whodunit keep us hooked.

Silences punctuate these slow-burning episodes, while calls of peacocks and sounds of everyday village life remind us that this is a Manikandan product. Characters are filled with enough material to make them seem lived-in, be it the montages of Madurai Meena (Risha Jacobs), a dancer who falls in love with Muthu, or a passing shot of Muthu bidding adieu to his tusker friend Ganesh.

A still from ‘Kaattaan’
| Photo Credit:
JioHotstar

This, of course, isn’t to say that Kaattaan is perfect. At first, Kaalai’s family life (VJ Paaru appears as his wife Lalitha) is shown to help us understand the pressure that’s going on Kaalai’s mind — he moves the decapitated head to ensure it comes within the station’s jurisdiction, a decision he takes to delay the shutting down of the police station. The sub plot ends with Kaalai handing over a pregnant goat to his househelp, but we wonder if scenes set at Kaalai’s house had overstayed their welcome to become unnecessary fillers.

But then, without these scenes, Kaattaan would also miss making a subtler point — the final corroboration of who Muthu is. To Kaalai, Sidharthan and Thangamudi, Muthu is an enigma, a dead man who offered them a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: to tell his story to the world, and in the process, find something resembling purpose for their lives as policemen. Now it is upon you to find out what Muthu’s life means to you. If Julian Barnes spoke of the lack of corroborations to ascertain the meaning of a life, Manikandan writes one too many witnesses of a life to show that the full picture will always remain elusive. You are many and one, all at the same time.

Muthu Engira Kaattaan is currently streaming on JioHotstar

Published – March 27, 2026 04:44 pm IST