As part of the FVC Plus activities within the Film & Video department at NID, Prahlad Gopakumar took us through the world of contemporary Malayalam cinema (in a series he had christened 'Anganam'). The six chosen films were shown and discussed on consecutive weekends, through the months of January and February in 2014. My little reviews of the six:
01. CELLULOID (2013, directed by Kamal)
“Celluloid” is a biopic based on the fateful life of J.C. Daniel, the Director/Producer of the first film in Malayalam "Vigathakumaran" and the tragic story of the film's Dalit leading lady P. K. Rosie (aka Rosamma). At times slow and literal, and often glossing over any possible inadequacies of the hero and his relationships (including with his forever uncomplaining wife), the film however manages to hold one's attention (especially in the first half, till the events just prior to the first screening of "Vigathakumaran" in Capitol Theatre, Thiruvanathapuram).
02. AKAM (2013, directed by Shalini Usha Nair)
“Akam” is a ghost story, with a feminist perspective. A popular and upwardly mobile young male architect, who doesn't have to struggle for female attention, gets badly disfigured in the face in a road accident. A mysterious young woman gets drawn to him (despite his impairment) and eventually they get married. Very soon he starts suspecting that she is a Yakshi (a female vampire of sorts), out to drink his blood. In the context of a deeply patriarchal Kerala, the story can be read as an allegory, where the men are afraid of women in the driver's seat. No surprises, therefore, that AKAM was not so successful, either at the box office, or with the critics. Despite being shot with a DSLR camera (Canon 5D), the film has a natural look. The acting is more than competent. I was told that the original dialogues in Malayalam are great. But the subtitles in English on the DVD are atrocious.
03. THATTATHIN MARAYATHU (Behind the Veil) (2012, directed by Vineeth Sreenivasan)
An expensively mounted blockbuster. “Thattathin Marayathu” is a formula-ridden Ummachi Kutti (presumably fair and beautiful, and unattainable, Muslim Girl) and an ordinary looking Nair Boy's almost-doomed love story, set in the north Kerala town of (presumably ultra conservative) Thalassery. The complex Hindu-Muslim divide of Kerala is turned into neat secular (communist actually, with Che Guevara images prominently in the background) and orthodox (Islamic, always) boxes, with the Nair protagonist (being Hindu, and naturally more open minded) pointedly participating in the Duffmuttu form of Malabar Muslim song & dance and later opening a 'Purdah' shop, in pursuit of his ummachi kutti Aayesha (one Miss Talwar, a completely miscast import from sadda Punjab - sorry, Mumbai). He loves her just because she is very beautiful (really?) and she loves him because... (she is dumb). There are many songs, most of them forgettable. One stands out however. Here it is -
Ennomale, En shwaasame, En jeevane, Aayesha
Muthuchippi poloru kathinnullil vannoru kinnaaram
Kinnarichu paaduvaan ullinnullil ninnoru sreeraagam
ROUGH TRANSLATION:
My dear, my breath, my life, Aayisha..
Your tete-a-tete that came in a pearl-like letter
.. is a heavenly note from deep in you.. to sing a cozy song
Music: Shaan Rahman
Lyrics: Anu Elizabeth Jose/
Singers: Sachin Warrier, Remya Nambeeshan
04. PAPILIO BUDDHA (2013, directed by Jayan K. Cherian)
“Papilio Buddha”’s starkness came as a surprise to me. Dealing with the everyday oppression of the Dalits in an apparently emancipated Kerala, "Papilio Buddha" is brutally straightforward in its depiction of commonplace (yet extreme) violence the lower castes are at the receiving end of. Frontal nudity (both genders), demolition (nay literal desecration) of the carefully constructed 'Gandhiji' pacifist narrative, dialogues that smell (nay stink) of the (realistic) street, in their roughness and patriarchal sexual innuendos and a sexually-charged Buddha who can be carnally constructed - all of these would have normally ensured the film's demise at the Censor Board. Surprisingly it survived. But for me the most violent image is of the calm and beautiful verdant rolling hills and valleys of the Western Ghats, where the narrative of "Papilio Buddha" is situated, and where such mundane yet immense hate, anger and oppression co-exist, so very deceptively. I had doubts, however of the director's intentions vis a vis showing the gay White American wildlife smuggler (indirectly) exploiting the native (JNU-educated) boy sexually as well. Ditto with the NGO-type young urban lesbian women having an intimate time, while sweating it out for a 'good' cause and an award winning campus film. Plus, can a non-Dalit really re-imagine the humiliating and progressively soul-numbing experience of being one. I can't.
05. OZHIMURI (A Document of Separation) (2012, directed by Madhupal)
“Ozhimuri” is supposedly a look at the after-effects of the problematic transition the Nair community of Kerala underwent in the 40s, from the women-dominated traditional matrilineal system to the more widely prevalent & 'modern' patriarchy. But unlike the film's promise, of exploring the unusual nuances of a rare world where women once legally decided stuff about their destiny, including who they slept and had children with and who they perfunctorily discarded, Ozhimuri seems to be more a lament for the lost manhoods of its men - about how they have suffered under the grotesque rule of the she-devils. The three principal women characters (mother, wife, daughter-in-law) are subservient (in ways sometimes direct, sometimes subtle) to the wishes of their two men (father & son), who unexpectedly (but naturally) bond in memory of the wronged masculinity of the badly-dead grandfather. That the wife (even after all the good words spoken in favour of a loud & brutish husband) does not stop seeking a divorce, in order to apparently free herself from these slavish bonds, seems like an unevenly cooked afterthought, when it comes.
06. LEFT RIGHT LEFT (2013, directed by Arun Kumar Aravind)
Known outside as a red bastion (besides Bengal), Kerala was the first state in the world to democratically elect a communist government, in 1957. But like Bengal, the experience of living under the Raj of the comrades has largely been (to use a generous word) mixed. The movie “Left Right Left”, mounted in a mainstream manner, mostly serves as a vehicle for some angst-ridden display of nihilistic machismo by the couldn't-care-less corrupt cop 'Vattu' Jayan (played loudly by chubby cheeks Indrajith Sukumaran). The film is however saved by some good (read underplayed) acting by the partially paralysed once-communist do-gooder Che Guevera Roy (played by Murali Gopy, who has also written the film) and his JNU-returned (why JNU - even the street-smart English-speaking dalit boy who has a rude awakening in "Papilio Buddha" was from there, remember?) genteel wife Anitha (essayed by Lena Kumar). But the star of the show (and creepily familiar - I grew up amidst comrades in Kolkata of the 70s and the 80s) is Kaitheri Sahadevan, the megalomaniac, corrupt but suave red leader (played excellently by Hareesh Peradi, with the correct balance of poise & poison - reel-life Kaitheri Sahadevan is rumoured to be real-life Pinarayi Vijayan, Kerala State Secretary of CPI-M), who brooks no opposition, even from within.
01. CELLULOID (2013, directed by Kamal)
“Celluloid” is a biopic based on the fateful life of J.C. Daniel, the Director/Producer of the first film in Malayalam "Vigathakumaran" and the tragic story of the film's Dalit leading lady P. K. Rosie (aka Rosamma). At times slow and literal, and often glossing over any possible inadequacies of the hero and his relationships (including with his forever uncomplaining wife), the film however manages to hold one's attention (especially in the first half, till the events just prior to the first screening of "Vigathakumaran" in Capitol Theatre, Thiruvanathapuram).
02. AKAM (2013, directed by Shalini Usha Nair)
“Akam” is a ghost story, with a feminist perspective. A popular and upwardly mobile young male architect, who doesn't have to struggle for female attention, gets badly disfigured in the face in a road accident. A mysterious young woman gets drawn to him (despite his impairment) and eventually they get married. Very soon he starts suspecting that she is a Yakshi (a female vampire of sorts), out to drink his blood. In the context of a deeply patriarchal Kerala, the story can be read as an allegory, where the men are afraid of women in the driver's seat. No surprises, therefore, that AKAM was not so successful, either at the box office, or with the critics. Despite being shot with a DSLR camera (Canon 5D), the film has a natural look. The acting is more than competent. I was told that the original dialogues in Malayalam are great. But the subtitles in English on the DVD are atrocious.
03. THATTATHIN MARAYATHU (Behind the Veil) (2012, directed by Vineeth Sreenivasan)
An expensively mounted blockbuster. “Thattathin Marayathu” is a formula-ridden Ummachi Kutti (presumably fair and beautiful, and unattainable, Muslim Girl) and an ordinary looking Nair Boy's almost-doomed love story, set in the north Kerala town of (presumably ultra conservative) Thalassery. The complex Hindu-Muslim divide of Kerala is turned into neat secular (communist actually, with Che Guevara images prominently in the background) and orthodox (Islamic, always) boxes, with the Nair protagonist (being Hindu, and naturally more open minded) pointedly participating in the Duffmuttu form of Malabar Muslim song & dance and later opening a 'Purdah' shop, in pursuit of his ummachi kutti Aayesha (one Miss Talwar, a completely miscast import from sadda Punjab - sorry, Mumbai). He loves her just because she is very beautiful (really?) and she loves him because... (she is dumb). There are many songs, most of them forgettable. One stands out however. Here it is -
Ennomale, En shwaasame, En jeevane, Aayesha
Muthuchippi poloru kathinnullil vannoru kinnaaram
Kinnarichu paaduvaan ullinnullil ninnoru sreeraagam
ROUGH TRANSLATION:
My dear, my breath, my life, Aayisha..
Your tete-a-tete that came in a pearl-like letter
.. is a heavenly note from deep in you.. to sing a cozy song
Music: Shaan Rahman
Lyrics: Anu Elizabeth Jose/
Singers: Sachin Warrier, Remya Nambeeshan
04. PAPILIO BUDDHA (2013, directed by Jayan K. Cherian)
“Papilio Buddha”’s starkness came as a surprise to me. Dealing with the everyday oppression of the Dalits in an apparently emancipated Kerala, "Papilio Buddha" is brutally straightforward in its depiction of commonplace (yet extreme) violence the lower castes are at the receiving end of. Frontal nudity (both genders), demolition (nay literal desecration) of the carefully constructed 'Gandhiji' pacifist narrative, dialogues that smell (nay stink) of the (realistic) street, in their roughness and patriarchal sexual innuendos and a sexually-charged Buddha who can be carnally constructed - all of these would have normally ensured the film's demise at the Censor Board. Surprisingly it survived. But for me the most violent image is of the calm and beautiful verdant rolling hills and valleys of the Western Ghats, where the narrative of "Papilio Buddha" is situated, and where such mundane yet immense hate, anger and oppression co-exist, so very deceptively. I had doubts, however of the director's intentions vis a vis showing the gay White American wildlife smuggler (indirectly) exploiting the native (JNU-educated) boy sexually as well. Ditto with the NGO-type young urban lesbian women having an intimate time, while sweating it out for a 'good' cause and an award winning campus film. Plus, can a non-Dalit really re-imagine the humiliating and progressively soul-numbing experience of being one. I can't.
05. OZHIMURI (A Document of Separation) (2012, directed by Madhupal)
“Ozhimuri” is supposedly a look at the after-effects of the problematic transition the Nair community of Kerala underwent in the 40s, from the women-dominated traditional matrilineal system to the more widely prevalent & 'modern' patriarchy. But unlike the film's promise, of exploring the unusual nuances of a rare world where women once legally decided stuff about their destiny, including who they slept and had children with and who they perfunctorily discarded, Ozhimuri seems to be more a lament for the lost manhoods of its men - about how they have suffered under the grotesque rule of the she-devils. The three principal women characters (mother, wife, daughter-in-law) are subservient (in ways sometimes direct, sometimes subtle) to the wishes of their two men (father & son), who unexpectedly (but naturally) bond in memory of the wronged masculinity of the badly-dead grandfather. That the wife (even after all the good words spoken in favour of a loud & brutish husband) does not stop seeking a divorce, in order to apparently free herself from these slavish bonds, seems like an unevenly cooked afterthought, when it comes.
06. LEFT RIGHT LEFT (2013, directed by Arun Kumar Aravind)
Known outside as a red bastion (besides Bengal), Kerala was the first state in the world to democratically elect a communist government, in 1957. But like Bengal, the experience of living under the Raj of the comrades has largely been (to use a generous word) mixed. The movie “Left Right Left”, mounted in a mainstream manner, mostly serves as a vehicle for some angst-ridden display of nihilistic machismo by the couldn't-care-less corrupt cop 'Vattu' Jayan (played loudly by chubby cheeks Indrajith Sukumaran). The film is however saved by some good (read underplayed) acting by the partially paralysed once-communist do-gooder Che Guevera Roy (played by Murali Gopy, who has also written the film) and his JNU-returned (why JNU - even the street-smart English-speaking dalit boy who has a rude awakening in "Papilio Buddha" was from there, remember?) genteel wife Anitha (essayed by Lena Kumar). But the star of the show (and creepily familiar - I grew up amidst comrades in Kolkata of the 70s and the 80s) is Kaitheri Sahadevan, the megalomaniac, corrupt but suave red leader (played excellently by Hareesh Peradi, with the correct balance of poise & poison - reel-life Kaitheri Sahadevan is rumoured to be real-life Pinarayi Vijayan, Kerala State Secretary of CPI-M), who brooks no opposition, even from within.
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