KAAM 25 (2026): Vineeth Sreenivasan’s Action Thriller Misfires Despite Promising Cast
Noble Babu Thomas steps into the skin of Dev Mahendran, a man caught between a dangerous international operator named André Nicola and the political shadow of his own father, and the premise alone carries the weight of a tightly wound spy thriller. Yet somewhere between the casting sheet and the final cut, Karam loses the very tension that should make it compulsive viewing.
Noble Babu Thomas Carries More Than His Character Deserves
Thomas, who also wrote the screenplay, takes on Dev Mahendran with visible commitment. He constructs a protagonist navigating personal legacy and external threat simultaneously, which is an ambitious double burden for any debut leading man.
The problem is the writing serves the plot more than it serves the character. Dev often reacts rather than drives, leaving Thomas to compensate with physicality where the script offers little interiority. It is a performance that hints at range without being given the room to prove it.
Vineeth Sreenivasan’s Direction Finds Atmosphere but Loses Architecture
Vineeth Sreenivasan understands mood. His framing of the Dev-Mahendran father-son dynamic, with Manoj K. Jayan lending institutional gravity to the older man, suggests a director comfortable with emotional subtext beneath genre scaffolding.
The flaw, though, is structural. Noble Babu Thomas’s screenplay, while conceptually layered, does not build pressure incrementally the way action thrillers demand. Scenes arrive without the connective tissue that would make each escalation feel earned.
Shaan Rahman’s soundtrack gestures toward tension without consistently delivering it. The score feels like it belongs to a more confident film than the one on screen.
The Action Thriller Mechanics Are Present, But Unevenly Assembled
As an action thriller, Karam operates on the grammar of international intrigue. Ivan Vukomanovic’s André Nicola establishes a credible foreign-threat register, and the casting of a non-Indian actor in this role signals genuine intent to build a world beyond Kerala’s borders.
Audrey Miriam Henest’s Sana Abdullah adds a cross-cultural dimension that the film’s ambitions clearly required. But the action geography, the spatial logic of who is where and why it matters, is not always crisp. Sequences that should feel like clockwork instead feel approximate.
The thriller’s second half reportedly struggles to sustain what the premise promises. This is the genre’s cardinal sin: establishing stakes and then failing to tighten them as the clock runs down.
If you enjoy Malayalam cinema that swings between family drama and genre ambition, Hindi Thriller reviews on this site cover the full spectrum of where the industry is pushing its boundaries right now.
Shweta Menon and Manoj K. Jayan Are Wasted in Functional Roles
Shweta Menon plays Dr. Nandita Bose, Minister of External Affairs and Dev’s father’s ex-girlfriend, a role that sits at the exact intersection of personal and political that thrillers love to exploit. Casting Menon here is a signal of intent. She brings authority and quiet history to every scene she occupies.
Yet the script does not weaponise that history sufficiently. Manoj K. Jayan as Mahendran faces a similar fate, his presence dignifies scenes that the writing has not fully loaded. Baburaj as Rosario and Kalabhavan Shajohn as Kamal Muhammed flesh out the periphery, but both feel like they belong to a fuller, longer cut of this film.
Box Office Verdict Tells Its Own Story About Audience Fit
I find it telling that a film with this cast configuration and this director could not find its footing commercially. Karam was declared a box-office bomb, and while commercial failure does not determine artistic merit, in this case it likely reflects a genuine disconnect between what the film promised and what it delivered.
The audience for Malayalam action thrillers is sophisticated and demanding. They have been trained by films that execute genre mechanics with precision. Karam arrives without that precision, and discerning viewers tend to notice the gap immediately.
If you are already a fan of Vineeth Sreenivasan’s earlier, more character-driven work, there is enough here to watch once, perhaps on streaming, to understand where his ambitions are pointing. Casual viewers hunting a tight thriller weekend watch should adjust expectations significantly. The film has texture in its performances but does not reward the patience it asks of its audience.
If the tension-building problems in Karam sound familiar, the similar structural frustrations in Ekaki The review make for an interesting parallel read.
Karam is a film with the right ingredients assembled in the wrong order, and at 2 out of 5, it is a watch only for those willing to mine a promising cast for the glimpses of something better that never quite arrives.
For another recent Malayalam-adjacent action film where a charismatic lead struggles against an underwritten script, the Ustaad Bhagat verdict in Ustaad Bhagat Singh share a frustratingly similar fate.
Ankit Jaiswal is the Chief Author, covering Indian cinema and OTT releases with honest, no-filler criticism. An SEO strategist by background, he brings a research-driven approach to film writing, cutting through hype to tell you exactly what's worth your time.