2022, Malayalam, Amazon Prime, 7.5/10 IMDB, Directed by Sajimon Prabhakar
An arduous survival drama spun around native discrimination, keeps the viewers invested in the mental and physical ordeals of the protagonist. The film is a compelling watch for its promising positivity, terrific performance by Fahad, exceptional cinematography and brilliant screenplay.
Survival dramas are tricky to get it right, for it can become a tedious watch, if not complimented with the right balance of emotional elements. The strength of the film is that it imbibes casteism in its narration, breaking it free from the monotony and adding few intriguing layers to blanket the plot with.
The novel premise shadowing the livelihood of an electronic repairman Anil Kumar alias Anikuttan, has been seamlessly brought to life, with a profound performance by the mysteriously fascinating Fahad. Sporting a despised look on his face and an overt disgust in his eyes, the actor gets in to the skin of the character, that holds prejudice against certain people in the small community that he lives in.
Anikuttan is fighting a battle within and his mother, (played by the fantastic Jaya S Kurup), takes the brunt of her son’s pent-up anger, as his moods swing. The actor’s offensive behavior makes us cringe in disdain and his infuriation towards the crying infant in the neighborhood, characterizes him as this intolerant, mean human. But we viewers begin to empathize, as the actor triumphs in illustrating his mental exertion, when the sub plots of his sister’s marriage and his father’s death, crosses path in the otherwise linear narration.
Blinking is an ‘edit point’ for cinematographers but when actors like Fahad master the art of looking straight in to the camera, his emotions are conveyed intensely and are often reciprocated beautifully by actors opposite him. Fahad’s non-blinking eyes along with his petite body of a commoner, prompts the viewers to experience the moment that the actor is seemingly experiencing on-screen. The actor is a pro in mastering his eye-line during his monotone shots and his control over his blinks, manipulates the viewers to make them believe in the character he plays.
The 20 odd minute sequence of the actor trying to survive the natural disaster, glues us to our seats. The intercuts of visuals that represent Anikuttan’s thoughts in his near-death experience, evokes a heavenly composition under water. Those visuals are nothing but his thoughts, his goodness within, his true self, the one without the camouflage of his ‘unexpressed anger’. I personally was familiar with those visions. I bet most of the viewers would have related to those visuals and the words of Anikittan’s father, (impressively played by Jaffer Idukki)- the alternate personality of an individual, the alter ego.
Actor Mammooty’s ‘Puzhu’ threads on a similar premise, but the protagonist’s alter ego never stands a chance to win the evil within, as the maker chooses to speak, how one succumbs to the overwhelming power of societal intolerance.
But here the maker chooses to prioritize positivity as an effective approach to pursue happiness in life. Under the debris and the leaking sky, the infant’s cry is no longer an exasperation for Anikuttan, but a cry of hope, a cry of compassion, a cry that reminds him of his guilt, a cry that awakens the survival instincts in him, a cry that leads to the search for the ‘Malayankunju’ (which translates ‘tribal child’, if my interpretation is right)- an analogy for the search of ‘fellow feeling’, that would vanquish the ‘bigotry’.
Anikuttan’s urge to see the infant in the neonatal ICU in the climax, symbolizes the keen intention of the makers in restoring ‘Faith’ in humanity.