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Release
date:
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Kerala: October 11, 2018. Delhi: October 12.
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Director:
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Rosshan Andrrews
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Cast:
Language:
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Nivin Pauly,
Priya Anand, Mohanlal, Sunny Wayne, Shine Tom Chacko, Sudheer Karamana,
Manikandan R. Achari, Sidhartha Siva, Thesni Khan, Sudev Nair
Malayalam
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Kayamkulam Kochunni is a grand film. Its
grandeur is not merely physical though, but a factor of its worldview,
political sensibilities and sensitivity. An impoverished Muslim child who, in
his adulthood, was brutalised by wily Brahmins and ultimately driven to crime,
stealing from rich upper-caste Hindus and providing to poverty-stricken Dalits –
at any given time in India, a film based on this story would be
significant. The 19th century Malayali Robin Hood’s biopic is particularly
relevant though in India of 2018, where Muslims are being marginalised,
degraded and lynched by right-wing Hindutva forces while the Dalit community is
on the boil.
This big-screen
interpretation of his life is reportedly the most expensive Mollywood venture
till date. Comparisons between Kayamkulam
Kochunni and the Tollywood epic Bahubali
are inevitable, so let me get this out of the way. Bahubali 1&2 are fantasy dramas, this one is based on a true story. The Bahubalis were ostentatious films about
wealthy kings, Kayamkulam Kochunni is
opulent in its own way but it gives more space on its massive canvas to the
poor than to the rich, to the oppressed than to the oppressors. The Bahubalis were socially and politically conformist for the most part, Kayamkulam
Kochunni is a celebration of non-conformism and social rebellion.
Moments after the film opens,
young Kochunni of Kayamkulam town gets an early Les
Miserables-style lesson in inequity and injustice when his
father is beaten to a pulp for stealing grain to feed his starving family. On
leaving home, the little Muslim boy encounters unexpected kindness from an
upper-caste Hindu gentleman and, despite his bitter childhood memories, grows
up to be a happy-go-lucky youth, popular among locals and generous to a fault.
His schooling in caste tyranny among Hindus and
British colonialism, his love for the Shudra woman Janaki, his encounter with
the dreaded dacoit Ithikkara Pakki and his own journey to banditry are all
chronicled in considerable detail in this film snappily edited by Sreekar
Prasad.
Like Rajeev Ravi
who directed the blockbuster Kammatipaadam
and so many other wonderful Malayalam directors, Rosshan Andrrews too does not
assume that films on marginalised communities must perforce be artsy, niche,
small and underplayed. Kayamkulam
Kochunni is, among other things, an imposing spectacle. The river that runs
by the town and the natural splendour of the region are beautifully shot both
by day and by night by DoP Binod Pradhan, as are the lushly lit Kalari scenes
led by veteran actor Babu Antony. The most powerful image from the film to my
mind though is of Kochunni getting married inside a giant pyramidical tower
created by poor men standing one on top of the other’s shoulders. That evocative
picture combined with the throbbing chants of those people forms one of the
most impactful passages from Kayamkulam
Kochunni.
Such carefully
crafted imagery ensures that despite its visual scale, heart-stopping
action, high-adrenaline chases and Gopi Sundar’s pulsating music, the dominant
takeaway from Kayamkulam Kochunni is
its politics and humanity.
That said, a film
that represents the country’s lowest castes, the poor and a
beleaguered religious minority with such sensitivity is surprisingly neglectful
of women. The female characters are all present here either to be loved,
protected or exploited by the men and not as individuals in their own right. The ultimate irony is that Kayamkulam Kochunni features an item
song during which the camera remains fixated on Nora Fatehi’s bottom.
Only one woman gets significant screen time, prominence in the plot and
any kind of agency. Even the crowd scenes and the musical choruses are
dominated by men. This is not what one would expect from a film directed by
Andrrews and written by Bobby-Sanjay, considering that their most successful
recent collaboration was Manju Warrier’s comeback film after a 14 year hiatus, How Old Are You.
That film was woman-centric but did not erase men. In this one, it is as if the
team could not envision crucial leadership or participatory roles for the
so-called weaker/gentler sex in an action adventure. (On this front alone, Baahubali 2 scores over Kayamkulam Kochunni with Anushka Shetty’s
atypical Devasena.)
The cast is packed
with known names. Priya Anand does a decent job of playing the unpredictable
Janaki, as does Sunny Wayne in a meaty role as Kochunni’s bete noir Keshava –
neither of them is great, but they are fair enough. Mohanlal appears late in
the film as that other legendary highway robber, Ithikkara Pakki, and lends an
animalistic touch to his performance as a brigand with a heart of gold. The
camera is careful not to pull out too far when his character is throwing
punches, which is a good thing because it has been a long time since Lalettan
has looked convincing in action scenes. However, his screen presence and star
stature give his character the
weight it deserves despite this being only an extended cameo.
Shine Tom Chacko
stands out among the able supporting actors, playing a Brahmin with empathy for
Dalits. (Possible spoilers ahead)
The only off-key performance comes from Thesni Khan as a woman Kochunni
considers family. At arguably the most important turning point in the leading
man’s adult life, her ambiguous facial expressions leave a question mark over
whether she is helpless and scared or intentionally traitorous.
In fact, the
writing itself becomes thoroughly awkward around the final betrayal of
Kochunni. The screenplay attributes what feel like contrived motivations
to every single person who lets him down.
(Spoiler
alert ends)
Nivin Pauly is an unusual choice
for Kochunni since he does not have the body type conventionally associated
with action heroes (read: Prabhas and Rana Daggubati). Yet, despite his
increasing bulk, Pauly is surprisingly agile in the fight scenes. He also does
a remarkable job sans gimmickry of capturing the protagonist’s transformation
from innocence to seething, volcanic fury, from that simple young man called
Kochunni to Kayamkulam Kochunni of folklore in whose name a shrine exists attached to a
temple in Kerala.
Pauly is currently
one of the poster boys of middle-of-the-road Malayalam cinema. Kayamkulam Kochunni is a reminder that
he is as adept at headlining a humongous, overtly massy project as the delicate
little gems he is so closely associated with. This is a film that is large in
every conceivable way – large to look at and large of heart. Its strength lies
in the fact that its soul overshadows the spectacle at each turn, and the lasting memory
from it is of a poor Muslim man who soldiered past his hellish beginnings to
become a messiah for the most downtrodden of India’s people.
Rating (out
of five stars): ***1/2
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CBFC Rating (India):
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U
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Running time:
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143 minutes
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A version of this review has also been published on Firstpost:
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