REVIEW 737: JALLIKATTU

Release date:	Kerala: October 4, 2019 Delhi: October 18, 2019
Director:	Lijo Jose Pellissery
Cast: Language:	Chemban Vinod Jose, Antony Varghese, Sabumon Abdusamad, Santhy Balachandran, Jaffer Idukki Malayalam

Jallikattu is the sort of film that gores its way into the brain and rips right through pre-conceived notions of what constitutes cinema. 

As alive as the beast being hunted on screen through most of its crisp one-and-a-half hours running time, the film pulsates with an infectious, unrelenting energy that is both exhausting and exhilarating, enervating yet invigorating. 

It is violent, but – a distinction that populist filmmakers like Sandeep Reddy Vanga (Arjun Reddy, Kabir Singh) refuse to acknowledge – it is not a celebration of violence. Far from it. It is also one of the most intriguing, beautifully impertinent works to emerge from Indian filmdom this year, brought to us by one of contemporary India’s most intriguing, beautifully impertinent filmmakers. 

Lijo Jose Pellissery’s Jallikattu is set in a remote Kerala village where a buffalo goes berserk on escaping an attempt at slaughter by local butchers Antony (Antony Varghese) and Varkey (Chemban Vinod Jose). The beast runs amok through fields, plantations and human habitations, spurring the men of the community to give chase. This happens in the aftermath of a young man exacting revenge on another in a seething rivalry over a woman they both lust after, a local policeman getting violent with his wife, and other conflicts that continue to play out while the buffalo wreaks havoc on people’s bodies and property. 

Jallikattu is written by R. Jayakumar and S. Hareesh, based on the short story Maoist by Hareesh. The title is drawn from the highly controversial, bloody sport popular in Tamil Nadu, in which bulls are released into human crowds that are challenged to physically subdue the creatures. Pellissery and his colleagues turn that description on its head as the men in their film mine their basest instincts to defeat the buffalo. Many of them simultaneously use this battle as a camouflage for and an outlet to vent other simmering internal struggles, such that it becomes hard to distinguish between the four-legged animal and the primitive, feral bipeds hot on its heels. 

In this charged atmosphere, men do not merely speak, they shout, scream, growl and almost spit words out at each other and at the women in their lives. When one such brute attacks a woman (played by Santhy Balachandran), he buries his head in her body, hissing and snarling like a predator hungry for meat. She resists vehemently, but her subsequent calm conversation with him about a mundane matter is a chilling metaphor for the normalisation of sexual violence in our society and the manner in which women condition themselves to gather their wits about them in the face of male bestiality because of the frequency with which they are subjected to such savagery. 

Jallikattu remains focused on the ferocious male of the species, but not without reminding us in the briefest of scenes that women themselves may appear calmer but are not above running a dagger through other women whose choices they resent or condemn. 

Pellissery’s narrative plunges into action from the get-go, using the rhythm of the human breath, the flaming red of the title, the activity at a crowded meat shop, random banter and seemingly extraneous sub-plots to create an electric sense of anticipation before the animal runs riot. 

Renganaath Ravee’s sound design intermittently draws drumbeats from every available element in the ambient audioscape, ranging from the laboured inhalations and exhalations of an old man, knives striking animal flesh, the buffalo’s hooves and the mob in its wake. Prashant Pillai’s music cuts in at intervals to inject further adrenaline into the proceedings. Combined with Deepu Joseph’s brisk editing and Gireesh Gangadharan’s unapologetic though non-exploitative cinematography, this gives Jallikattu a narrative flow so unyielding that it would take one of Varkey or Antony’s meat cleavers to slice through the tension that hangs thick in the air. 

Pellissery has built a reputation as a non-conformist since his debut almost a decade back. 2017’s Angamaly Diaries and last year’s Ee.Ma.Yau. earned him a well-deserved cult following nationwide. He has a unique ability to ask uncomfortable questions through cinema that nevertheless yields unbridled entertainment. Jallikattu is as much a courageous socio-political essay, a gutsy cultural critique that is unafraid to tap religious iconography and an allegory for the devolution of men over the ages, as it is an exciting, hormonally charged thriller. 

Men giving in to their most primeval urges make for a horrifying spectacle. Yet, as in life, in Jallikattu too it is fascinating to watch their inability to spot the self-destructive turn they take in their bid to dominate women and the planet. 

Rating (out of five stars): ****

CBFC Rating (India):	UA
Running time:	96 minutes

This review has also been published on Firstpost:

https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/jallikkattu-movie-review-lijo-jose-pellissery-presents-audacious-eye-popping-take-on-masculinity-and-our-savage-species-7523161.html

Visuals courtesy: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8721556/

REVIEW 723: PORINJU MARIAM JOSE

Release date:	August 23, 2019
Director:	Joshiy
Cast: Language:	Joju George, Nyla Usha, Chemban Vinod Jose, Rahul Madhav, Vijayaraghavan, Sudhi Koppa, Malavika Menon Malayalam

Porinju Mariam Jose is based on the folklore surrounding three reportedly real-life friends – Kaattaalan Porinju, Alappatt Mariam and Puthanpally Jose – who were plagued by class snobbery and street violence in 1980s Kerala. Written by Abhilash N. Chandran (who was cleared earlier this year of plagiarism charges raised in court by another author), the film has been directed by veteran blockbuster machine Joshiy.

In an era of gang wars and disco fever, the butcher Porinju (Joju George) is unswervingly loyal to his elderly patron/friend, the wealthy Iype (Vijayaraghavan). The older man seems class blind in his affection for the tempestuous yet golden-hearted youngster. The only relationships rivalling this one in Porinju’s life are his unbreakable bond with Jose (played by Chemban Vinod Jose) and his long-time romance with their common friend Mariam (Nyla Usha) who, like Iype, is well above their socio-economic station. The misbehaviour of a satellite character (Rahul Madhav) sets off a chain of vendetta that threatens to consume them all.

Porinju, Mariam and Jose’s basic story is interesting, and there is a lot this film could have been. Among other things, it could have been an indictment of benevolent members of dominant social groups who do great harm with their unwillingness to openly battle injustice, a theme especially relevant in today’s India where silent liberals are being held to account for their cowardice and/or apathy. Porinju Mariam Jose could have been a comment on how class often trumps friendship, but also often does not. It could have been a reminder of how human civilisation would be caught in an endless cycle of violence if history had not been punctuated by individuals who said “stop” at crucial moments. In fact, this film is all the above to a limited extent, but these points are conveyed feebly by a script that fails to explore its primary players with depth.

We get to know what the three protagonists do, we barely get to know them. Every effort is made to build them up as the stuff of local legend, especially with the awe-struck tone of their introduction, but at all times it feels like Chandran does not have ringside access to their innermost thoughts, feelings or motivations. With such weak writing of its leads, it is unsurprising that Porinju Mariam Jose fails to be an involved, emotionally engrossing narrative.

Porinju is the archetypal superhero of conventional commercial Indian cinema, invincible in physical combat. His prefixed nickname “Kaattaalan” literally means “forest-dweller” or “hunter” in Malayalam, but here of course is a figurative allusion to his wild nature. Despite the stereotypical larger-than-life character, the talented Joju George manages to convey Porinju’s love and longing for Mariam without coming across as a creepy stalker.

Nyla Usha looks regal and is convincing as the moneylender Mariam, a fiery woman living largely on her own terms – and on her own – in a conservative society. Mariam is different from heroines of most Malayalam action films: she is not a meek creature waiting to be saved by a man, as we see early on when she startles a molester with a fierce, instant and public retaliation. Her sense of independence is at odds, however, with her conservative reason for not marrying her beloved Porinju. It is also irritating that the writer’s notion of an independent woman includes these clichés – she smokes and drinks, the only woman in the entire community who seems to do so.

Chemban Vinod Jose is on point as the disco-loving Jose whose penchant for violence is such a contrast – a believable contrast – to his seemingly happy-go-lucky nature.

It must be said though that he and Nyla fall short in a scene in which we learn the truth about what is keeping Mariam and Porinju apart. Or perhaps it is not the actors’ fault, since the treatment of that passage – the direction and editing – exemplifies this film’s lack of tautness: Mariam and Jose are recounting a tragedy, yet the scene lacks intensity.

Another scene, this one featuring the three leads, also exemplifies Malayalam cinema’s casualness towards domestic violence and the manner in which this film industry normalises a boyfriend/husband raising his hand to hit a woman.

Much of the violence in the film happens parallel to or during church festivals. Extreme though the bloodshed is, Ajay David Kachappilly’s camera work is not exploitative. The juxtaposition of violence and faith brings to mind Lijo Jose Pellissery’s iconic Angamaly Diaries (2017) in which religious feasts and processions formed an ironic backdrop to the unrelenting bloodletting on screen. Joshiy’s characters are as trigger-happy as Pellissery’s gangs, but inhabit a visual setting far less naturalistic and a narrative far less gripping than Angamaly Diaries (which, coincidentally, was written by Chemban Vinod Jose).

Porinju Mariam Jose is replete with cultural references from the 1980s and thereabouts. The many mentions of the decade’s popular cinema and songs are fun due to their high recall value, but like much else in the film, they lack depth: they serve solely as markers of the time but beyond that tell us little about the characters.

The story at the heart of Porinju Mariam Jose has promise. The film itself is not without merit – it is, for instance, unusual for a Malayalam venture to feature a woman as a title character these days, and not easy for any film to succeed in giving equal importance to three leads. For the most part though, Porinju Mariam Jose is just a could-have-been.

Rating (out of five stars): *3/4

CBFC Rating (India):	UA
Running time:	150 minutes

This review has also been published on Firstpost:

https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/porinju-mariam-jose-movie-review-love-in-the-time-of-class-bias-an-independent-heroine-and-average-writing-7218221.html

Visuals courtesy: https://www.facebook.com/Nyla4u/

REVIEW 622: MARADONA

Release date:	Kerala: July 27. Delhi: August 3, 2018.
Director:	Vishnu Narayan
Cast: Language:	Tovino Thomas, Tito Wilson, Sharanya R. Nair, Chemban Vinod Jose, Leona Lishoy, Jins Baskar, Shalu Rahim     Malayalam

It’s not what you are thinking. Maradona is not a sports flick. The title comes from the name of the small-time criminal played by Tovino Thomas in this new Malayalam film release. 

Maradona and his friend Sudhi (Tito Wilson) are on the run from a bunch of brutal hitmen led by a fellow called Martin (Chemban Vinod Jose). While one of them holes himself up in a hotel room, the other finds refuge in the Bengaluru home of distant relatives (Leona Lishoy and Jins Baskar). Stuck in that flat in a high-rise building in a massive housing complex, Maradona at first experiences intense loneliness, a foreign feeling that drives this callous man to seek out fresh relationships in an alien world.

Hundreds of kilometres away, in Kerala a senior politician is preparing for a crucial election. His son Aravind (Shalu Rahim) lies in a hospital with a life-altering head injury, and silence around the boy’s condition is of essence for the neta’s career. He is, however, determined to find the people who reduced his child to this state.

As debutant director Vishnu Narayan takes his time to unveil the events that brought matters to this pass, he centres his screenplay around Maradona’s coming of age.

The story of Maradona by Krishna Moorthy has been modelled somewhat on the lines of Aashiq Abu’s Mayaanadhi (2017), which also starred Thomas. That film was about a gangster on the run who is desperate to convince the woman he loves to remain in her relationship with him. It was soulful, poetic and convincing.

Narayan and Moorthy manage to marginally replicate Mayaanadhi’s tonal quality, but their plot is not as credible. They operate on the premise that human warmth can change the worst of men for the better. Fair enough. However, for one to believe that Maradona evolves because of the friendships he finds unexpectedly in that impersonal ocean of apartments, it was essential for the film to establish that his earlier life was bereft of all such bonds. But it is not. It is clear from the start that Maradona and Sudhi are joined at the hip and willing to risk life and limb for each other. What then is the difference between that equation and the ones that develop in the present day in that housing compound? The answer: nothing apparent.

Maradona expects us to buy into the hero’s conversion simply because it tells us he is converted. But why should we? He was a jerk a moment before he metamorphosed into a non-jerk, good co-existed with evil within him (read: his great love for Sudhi versus his nastiness towards the rest of humanity) a moment before he became an all-round Mr Nice Guy, but with an unconvincing in-between the metamorphosis is just not believable.

What works in Maradona is the protagonist’s chilling behaviour in his before story filled with acts of meanness and violence that, significantly, do not involve bloodletting. Nothing betrays the hardness of a human heart better than harshness towards kids and harmless house pets – through Maradona’s behaviour towards child and beast, Messrs Narayan and Moorthy establish the man’s utter amorality.

Thomas is wonderful in those scenes. He is also a good casting choice because his urbane outward appearance and natural charm make you want to like his character until the narrative reveals how unlikeable he is.

(Spoiler alert) Aside: that said, unless Team Maradona is intentionally taking a pro-vegetarian stand, you have to wonder what they were thinking, or if they were thinking at all, while equating Maradona’s other acts of cruelty with a scene in which he captures a bird for food. Is eating meat the same as physically hurting a child or tying a dog’s mouth shut because it is disturbing your phone conversation? Really? (Spoiler alert ends)

When Maradona’s transformation to selfless goodness does happen, it is signalled by another scene involving birds that is melodramatic and in-your-face to the point of being silly. This is one of only two instances of overstatement in the film and a needless break from the otherwise subdued tone that is its most attractive feature. The other instance comes when a person the leading man has grown to love simply disappears. There is a heightening of tension when this occurs. (Possible spoiler ahead) The person offers no excuse when she resurfaces, making her disappearance an obvious contrivance intended to manipulate the viewer, unless Narayan and Moorthy are deliberately resorting to the women-are-teases stereotype. (Spoiler alert ends)

All is not lost though. I loved Sushin Shyam’s ominous background score for Maradona, and Sabu Mohan’s art direction, especially the film’s colour scheme. Conventional cinema tends to equate the big city with inhumanity while painting the countryside as an idyll where innocence and decency dwell. Narayan turns that trope on its head by setting Maradona’s goriest scenes in thickly vegetated seemingly remote locations while placing the central character in an urban jungle as he journeys towards self-discovery. The forest where men are seen being beaten to pulp is a delicious deep green, the brick-and-cement cluster where Maradona becomes a better man is a soothing, ice-cream-like lime green.

Often in that urban agglomeration, Maradona is shown standing on a balcony or a terrace rooftop from where cinematographer Deepak D. Menon pulls out further and further and further, until the man is a disappearing dot on the camerascape. It is a captivating device that elevates Maradona’s atmospherics and thoughtful air – until it gets repetitive.

As the titular character, Thomas is the fulcrum of Maradona and justifies every second of screen time given to him. The young actor is growing with each film. Tito Wilson is excellent but gets too little space here. Hopefully it will not take long for Mollywood to realise that U-Clamp Rajan from Angamaly Diaries is hero material.

Sharanya R. Nair who plays Maradona’s neighbour Asha has an interesting screen presence, but it is worth asking why film after film in Mollywood persists in casting newcomers as female leads instead of seeking out established names as they do for male leads. Leona Lishoy – who appears as Nadiya, in whose house Maradona takes shelter – is an example of a woman actor with an impressive on-screen persona who is repeatedly given character roles and supporting parts because for decades now, Mollywood has rarely allowed women to build up substantial filmographies as leads.

That is a separate discussion and one worth having. For the moment though, let’s talk about Maradona, a gangster flick with a difference that is mildly engaging but fails to live up to its own promise.

Rating (out of five stars): **

CBFC Rating (India):	UA
Running time:	2 hours 28 minutes

A version of this review has also been published on Firstpost:

https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/maradona-movie-review-tovino-thomas-adds-layers-to-a-mildly-engaging-film-that-leaves-its-promise-unfulfilled-4890981.html

Visuals courtesy: https://www.facebook.com/MaradonaTheMovie/