<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We continue our discussion of The Sea with the films: Chemeen<\/strong>, Amaram<\/strong>, Moonam Pakkam<\/strong>, Mosayile Kuthira Meenukal<\/strong>, and Akasathinte Niram<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Download Episode Twenty.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Episode Twenty Highlights:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Spoiler Alert! We try to remember to alert listeners to spoilers, but just in case, know that we talk about the films in-depth, so be sure to watch them first if you\u2019re concerned about spoilers!<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:00:30] Katherine notes that we seemed a bit, well, at sea in Episode 19 \u2013 for her, she felt she didn\u2019t have a firm grasp of what the sea represented in the films we explored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:00:55] Katherine also points out that Harsha mentioned that none of the filmmakers or writers of the films in Episode 19 were connected to the communities they were set in \u2013 so Katherine wonders how faithful the representations were. She felt we did get a glimpse of how people who live on coastal waters work and live. (with some reservations about some of the stereotypes).<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:02:08] Harsha notes that with older films, sometimes there are technological or stylistic details that are inaccessible to her. She understands that for Chemeen<\/strong> in particular, it represented a big change for Malayalam movies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:02:23] For Harsha, the other movies we talked about are basically fantasies about what people who live by the sea are like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:02:45] In the films we\u2019re exploring today, Harsha feels more of the people\u2019s humanity, as well as seeing how the sea plays a key role in people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:03:10] When both of us are struggling with the discussion around the films, what is it about the films (and maybe our understanding of them) that causes that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:03:20] Katherine notes that this is the first time she found all the films we\u2019re talking about today with subtitles, and that it\u2019s the first time she\u2019s loved all the films we\u2019re examining. Though she notes she found Moonnam Pakkam on Hotstar with subtitles in Canada, but it doesn\u2019t seem to be there any longer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:03:53] We very often talk about films we don\u2019t like because they do suit a theme we\u2019re exploring. At the same time, we\u2019re trying to cover a cross-section of Malayalam movies, we\u2019re not just looking at films from 2010 onwards that resonated with us. We\u2019re thinking of movies across eras, and perhaps also the way people responded to them and thought about them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:04:32] We sometimes talk about movies (like The Great Father<\/strong>, as an example), and it\u2019s not really an endorsement to go watch them. We do like discussions about films we don\u2019t like, even if we give the occasionally warning about them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:04:57] We don\u2019t want people to think that all Malayalam cinema is good, or that it always has the right perspective. We just want people to know that the cinema comes from a culture and in a lot of ways it\u2019s representative of that culture. Sometimes it has misogynistic and\/or casteist views, and we\u2019re always trying to represent that fairly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:05:24] We feel this is important, too, when someone is new to Malayalam cinema \u2013 they sometimes try to search out the best, and that\u2019s great, but sometimes the best flies under the radar, and sometimes things that get a lot of attention may not be worth your time to watch them (in our opinion).<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:06:35] Harsha decided to take a deep dive into the internet talking about RRR <\/strong>(note that we recorded this when RRR<\/strong> frenzy was at its height). The film had incredible reach (even as Harsha recognizes the movie wasn\u2019t made for her). She recalls the time when Magadheera <\/strong>was released, when a show called The Soup would take clips from the film \u2013 the craziest moments \u2013 making fun of it, but also recognizing how awesome it was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:07:56] A lot of context has gotten lost from the discussions around RRR<\/strong>, including ideas around nationalism and caste. And that\u2019s probably to be expected when you\u2019re watching just one film from an industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:09::10] This loops back around to our discussions of Malayalam cinema \u2013 perhaps we want the fans of these movies who have been getting into them since 2018 or so (when they arrived more frequently on streaming) to understand that maybe what we\u2019re doing is sharing a view for them. They may like what the cinema has to offer, but we can help when you think it\u2019s time to think a little bit deeper about them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:09:38] At the time, Katherine hadn\u2019t watched RRR<\/strong> yet \u2013 as Harsha points out, she wanted the hype to die down so she could give it a fair chance. At the same time, it\u2019s interesting for an Indian film to gain this kind of attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:10:15] The fan space around a film like RRR<\/strong> can be uncomfortable because it\u2019s often very white male centric, with a distinct lack of curiousity about what it\u2019s like to walk in someone else\u2019s shoes, or flip the perspective and see things from someone else\u2019s point of view. There\u2019s sometimes a distinct lack of empathy, and that\u2019s not how we like to watch movies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:11:20] We are two women talking in a space that is, generally, very male centric. Our aim is to add a different voice and a different perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:12:30] Harsha is, however, happy for the buzz around NTR Jr. — she knows the kind of life he\u2019s had, being the son of a mistress, it was nice to see that for him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:12:55] Katherine hopes that the attention on RRR<\/strong> will eventually spark some people to become curious and go further. Just don\u2019t think that RRR<\/strong> represents the entirety of Indian cinema.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:13:45} Harsha apologizes to the Telugu speaking listeners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:14:37] We turn to the films about the sea, and remind people there are spoilers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:15:19] The order of films today came from Katherine, and seemed logical to her after watching all the films. We\u2019re starting with the 1991 film Amaram<\/strong>, directed by Bharathan. It\u2019s the first Bharathan film we\u2019ve talked about! Harsha notes we\u2019re also talking about a Padmarajan film in this episode: in her words, \u201cWhat a treat!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:15:46] Amaram<\/strong> was written by another heavy hitter of Malayalam cinema, Lohithadas. It\u2019s a classic film in the repertoire, and should definitely be watched. It\u2019s about a fisherman who is a father raising a child alone. She\u2019s the apple of his eye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:16:25] He is very focused on her education and wants to make her a doctor. She passes her exams with flying colours, and is on her way to get the education her father wants for her. But her father discovers she\u2019s in love with her childhood friend and neighbour, and when she\u2019s given an ultimatum to choose, she decides to get married. This leads to all kinds of repercussions in the coastal community, between the father and daughter, and between the father and a woman he has a relationship with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:17:42] Katherine loves the film, and notes it\u2019s on YouTube with some funky subtitles<\/a> (which are better than no subtitles). She loves it in part because it\u2019s a contrast with the films we watched in Episode 19. You get a firm grasp of the community, and there\u2019s an insistence on the part of Mammootty\u2019s father character that his daughter is not going to be one of the women who take the catch and sells it. She is smart, and he wants better for her, but part of his reasoning is that there\u2019s no doctor in the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:18:33] It\u2019s often difficult to attract doctors to communities like this (Katherine mentions a couple of Canadian films on that very subject), and it\u2019s also important in this case because the girl\u2019s mother died soon after giving birth, because there wasn\u2019t a doctor to attend to her. <\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:19:05] The film gives an insight into the concerns of the fishing community, but there\u2019s also this idea that one generation wants to work hard in order to educate their children so they\u2019ll have a better life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:19:33] Katherine felt a little frustrated that the daughter chose to throw her opportunity away (at first). The young man she decides to marry pushes back at the idea that she should be educated: isn\u2019t enough that they love each other and they\u2019re together? But in the end, she does go back to school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:20:03] A problem that Harsha always had with the movie is this teenage love aspect. Her father, too, has some odd ideas as well \u2013 he tells her if she\u2019s with her college friends, and she sees him and he\u2019s in his work clothes, pretend not to know him. Because he wants her to go beyond, and almost cut her ties with this community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:20:30] That\u2019s unhealthy, and his daughter cries because she wonders if he thinks that if he\u2019s in dirty clothes, would he stop being her father? He wants to keep her in this bubble where she\u2019s well-educated and around people who are well-educated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:20:54] Raghavan is a strong tie for her back to the community, and he is all like, why do you need to be educated? Why do you think you\u2019re better than us because you go to college? He\u2019s like an archetypal teen-aged boyfriend who wants to stay at home and live the same life his parents did, holding back his girlfriend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:21:41] Harsha feels it\u2019s the wrong choice she\u2019s made to marry him, especially as she did so because he emotionally manipulated her. It\u2019s a toxic young love-type situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:22:01] Remember, too, that she\u2019s probably all of fifteen at this point. It\u2019s not even legal for her to get married. They might have had a religious ceremony, and not a civil one, and she abandons her education because he tells her to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:22:22] Eventually he sends her back, but mostly because her father taunts him, saying he doesn\u2019t have the money for her schooling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:22:50] Katherine loves the film because there are these tensions at play (whether you like them or not or whether you agree with them or not.) This makes you think about these positions. Neither Mammootty\u2019s character nor Ashokan\u2019s character are right, and there\u2019s this poor girl caught in the middle of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:23:17] When she\u2019s asked what path she wants to take, she says she\u2019ll do whatever her father wants her to. She doesn\u2019t even have the agency to say, \u201cI\u2019m good at all of this, so I will choose this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:23:38] The way her father is pushing her out of her community has to be very isolating. Imagine what her life is, where she\u2019s going to school, with people who are middle or upper class, you might see how she could feel excluded, and how they might look down on her. Maybe this is why she clings to her boyfriend, because he\u2019s something solid. He\u2019s a peer who understands where she\u2019s from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:24:47] Harsha wishes that her moral dilemma was delved into a little bit more in the film. The film is very much focussed on her father\u2019s sacrifice and the pain of losing his daughter, and even his community, because they\u2019ve turned their backs on him for not blessing the marriage of these two young people who are meant for each other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:25:22] Katherine can see how she might choose the marriage, because it represents stability and a link to the community she\u2019s from that her father is trying to deprive her of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:25:45] Harsha has also thought about the fact that the path her father has set her on is where she becomes a doctor, and then she marries a doctor, but he\u2019d have to be someone from the kind of community she\u2019s from, because India is very classist and very casteist. The family of a middle or upper class doctor is not going to bless the marriage to someone from the fishing community. Her father might not have considered what her adult life would look like, that she might be lonely and she might not find a partner. But she might be, even at her young age, seeing what is ahead of her. But as viewers, we only see what Achutty sees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:26:52] Katherine finds the film profoundly sad in many ways, in part because of some of the things we\u2019ve discussed, but also because the community \u2013 and these two families in particular \u2013 gets torn apart. There\u2019s also the relationship between Achutty and the aunt in the other family, and that, too, is completely destroyed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:27:18] There\u2019s a little bit of admiration on Achutty\u2019s part for Raghavan. It was clear that that Achutty looked down on Raghavan even before he discovered the relationship with his daughter, for not going to school,<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:27:45] Despite Achutty\u2019s initial sense of betrayal at the marriage, as time went on, he seemed to cope with it, perhaps thinking that if this is what his daughter really wants, he\u2019ll allow it, and he\u2019s sending her back to school, so that\u2019s also good. There are a lot of emotions happening in a short space of time, and you could see how the families could make amends. In the heat of the moment, people say things they don\u2019t necessarily mean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:28:20] Part of the issue, here, though, is that to prove himself, Raghavan goes out to sea to try to capture a hammerhead shark. Achutty goes out to sea at the same time \u2013 at first he seems to be dissing him, saying he\u2019s not good enough to do this, but he ends up kind of grudgingly admiring the fact that he\u2019s more capable of catching this shark than Achutty thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:28:51] This scene is the thing that causes the biggest rift in the community, when Achutty comes back, and Raghavan does not, and Achutty is accused of killing him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:29:21] Achutty goes back out to sea and finds Raghavan, who lives, but Achutty is so devastated by what he sees as a betrayal by the community, that the last we see of him is that he heads back out to sea, saying that the only thing that has been steady and constant in his life has been the sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:29:43] Harsha wonders if he was going out to sea to die, or to leave his community? This is a man who is very overtaken with emotion, and he\u2019s just going out to sea to just cope. But the ending is very open, open to a number of invitations. The speech he makes about the sea being his one constant doesn\u2019t sound like the speech someone would make if they were going to die. Harsha points out that earlier in the movie he notes that being out on the open ocean, you can be alone with the sea, talk to the sea, the birds, the wind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:31:18] We think it\u2019s a fair interpretation of the ending that he\u2019s just going out to have a chat with nature, and there have been people who have assumed he\u2019s died at the end of the film, but we really don\u2019t know that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:31:32] Katherine could see him coming back and the community trying to work this out. There are lots of moments in the film where people are heated and angry, and then resolve things once their anger dies down. Not everything that happened can be undone, but there are ways to repair relationships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:32:20] The force in this movie is the immense love he holds for his daughter. It\u2019s hard for Harsha to imagine him leaving her behind, especially when the driving force in the movie is his intense love for his daughter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:32:46] The film opens with a song that immediately establishes the very close bond between father and daughter, where she\u2019s always with him on the boat, even reading while he works. It also foreshadows her relationship with Raghavan, who is in the song, and we see him growing up alongside her. For Katherine, it\u2019s impeccable filmmaking to open in that way and establish the relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:33:41] Katherine thinks, especially with the open ending, that some of this is due to the writing, where Bharatan is such a good writer and filmmaker himself that he would allow us this open ending and allow us to interpret things he\u2019s laid out for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:34:07] For Harsha, the film\u2019s last scene has a tonne of sorrow, and it\u2019s framed in a way that could mean death. This connects to what she thinks about what the sea means in Malayalam cinema. In all of human history, the sea represents the place where the world as you know it ends. When you go out to sea, you\u2019re stepping beyond what your personal history, your family, your community, your society knows to be the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:34:49] In some ways, the sea can represent death or the beyond. So it makes sense that people might think of it as a death at the end, because in some sense he\u2019s going beyond the end of what people on shore know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n NOTE: Check out the Ala\/\u0d05\u0d32 podcast on Rethinking \u201cKeraleeyatha\u201d: Centering Oceanic Histories<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:35:08] Also, Malayalam movies of that time often had a sad ending. Like in Kireedam<\/strong>, where someone is taken off to jail, or often had a death of the hero at the end. So it\u2019s both the way the ending has been framed, but it was also the trend in Malayalam cinema of the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:35:56] It\u2019s a pleasure to watch a film like this several times and look at it form different perspectives. We talk a lot about New Gen films, for good reasons, including the fact that they sparked some really great filmmaking. But Katherine was reminded over the years to not forget the Golden Age films, from the 80s and early 90s. Even if things like patriarchy and misogyny make us angry, there\u2019s often still something thoughtful to take away from them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:36:50] Harsha describes it as a \u201cmeaty\u201d film \u2013 there\u2019s a lot to think about and a lot to contemplate. And there\u2019s a very sweet father\/daughter relationship. It\u2019s a very iconic film, and there are themes and images that resonate in her own life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:37:34] We move on to discuss Moonam Pakkam<\/strong>. It\u2019s a Padmarajan film from 1988. At the time we talked about this, the film was on Hotstar with subtitles, and the print wasn\u2019t bad, but it doesn\u2019t seem to be there anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:38:08] Harsha watched it on YouTube, and found it not bad either. It\u2019s still the 80s so we\u2019re not into the strong editing, and some of those things we see in the 90s. Unlike in Amaram<\/strong>, where it was focused on the ocean and the community that lives on the shore, this film pulls back a little bit. These are not fisher-folk \u2013 they\u2019re middle-class to upper middle-class people who are living along the South Travencore area. They don\u2019t make a living off they sea \u2013 they enjoy the sea recreationally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:38:57] The film also gives us another strong relationship, between a grandfather (played by Thilakan), and a grandson (played by Jayaram) who has just finished his medical studies. There\u2019s also a really lovely song establishing the relationship between the grandfather and grandson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:39:20] The grandson sends a letter to his father saying that he and his friends are going to come to visit. The grandfather is excited, and there\u2019s a whirlwind of preparations to make sure they\u2019re ready for the arrival of the young men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:40:17] There\u2019s almost a kind of female gaze on these young men as we watch them loaf on the beach and frolic in the water in their tiny, tiny underwear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:40:30] Katherine was a little surprised, because films these days tend to be much more modest, and this one is not, though everything about the context is appropriate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:42:48] The film really shows us the sea not as a place of work, but as a place of leisure and pleasure. But there\u2019s also a reminder that even as the sea is a place of enjoyment, it\u2019s also quite dangerous. Jayaram and Rahman\u2019s characters are out swimming, and they get caught by a riptide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:43:31] The title comes from a bit of local folklore \u2013 if a body is pulled into the ocean, then it will reappear on the third day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:43:52] The film starts off charming and idyllic, but there\u2019s also a constant thread of death as an undercurrent. The grandfather says several times (about himself and his friends) that they should be dead by now. At one point he even decides to have his will done, and they have a celebration, despite the fact that this is literally planning for what comes after your death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:44:53] The assumption is that you, as the grandfather, will die before your grandson, so you have to make sure he\u2019s taken care of. But it\u2019s the grandson who ends up dying, and the film goes from being joyous and lively to profoundly sad and sorrowful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:43:23] It\u2019s fascinating to watch Thilakan play this grandfather, because he is in complete denial at first \u2013 he even has dreams about his grandson swimming back to him. He firmly believes he\u2019s going to come back, and Katherine just found it so heartbreaking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:45:38] In a less skilled director\u2019s hands, the joyful part of this film, the anticipation of someone you\u2019re looking forward to coming, and the liveliness that a house has when you have visitors could be forced, could be said and not shown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:46:36] These characters are not children, so the grandparent can\u2019t really put restrictions on them, but for these guys, there\u2019s a feeling of invincibility about them, because they\u2019re so young and so carefree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:47:05] It\u2019s also classic vacation behaviour in Kerala \u2013 you\u2019re in someone else\u2019s home, so someone else will make tea for you. There\u2019s constant eating and tea drinking. For Harsha, the film was very nostalgic, and you could really feel the happiness in this home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:47:42] When the tragedy happens, it\u2019s like everything that was right with this world, the carpet is ripped out from under them, and that\u2019s exactly what Thilakan\u2019s character was experiencing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:47:52] At the moment they realize that Jayaram\u2019s character is not coming back, Ashokan is literally shrieking \u2013 it\u2019s very theatrical, and in another film it might not have worked, but here it\u2019s a complete realization of the devastation of this moment. You also feel the guilt of Lopez as the one who survived, but also the incredible generosity of the grandfather towards Lopez in this moment when he\u2019s grieving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:48:46] We see the grandfather going through all of these emotions, all these stages of denial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:48:58] At one point, the grandfather puts a sign up on the beach, warning people about the tides. He\u2019s very resigned about it, thinking the sign will likely fall down, or people will likely ignore it. He\u2019s probably right \u2013 the invincibility of youth combined with people going to the beach not even thinking that anything bad could happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:49:32] The way the film balances its two halves \u2013 the joyous first part, with the tragic second part \u2013 is really lovely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:49:43] When the grandfather talks to his friend the doctor, he notes that as old people, they\u2019ve experienced a lot of loss, and the young people haven\u2019t, so it\u2019s up to the older generation to show them the way out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:50:08] But both Jayaram\u2019s character and his love interest have experienced loss (death for the former, parental divorce for the latter), and as young people, you kind of see their trauma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:50:47] At the end of the day, it\u2019s the grandfather who just cannot find a way out of his grief. For him, his grandson is his only living relative, and he\u2019s his last connection to his family. It\u2019s just so tragic. He\u2019s managed to cope with all the loss in his life, but this loss seems to have broken him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:51:40] Both this and the previous film we talked about end with a main character going out to sea. Here, they\u2019re doing the funeral rites, and he just walks out to sea instead of releasing the vessel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:52:08] The film is so incredibly sad \u2013 some of it is in how the film is written and constructed, but Thilakan\u2019s performance brings so much to it. Katherine is also reminded of Ustad Hotel<\/strong> because of the profoundly loving relationship between a grandfather (played by Thilakan) and a grandson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:52:36] Thilakan spent thirty years of his career playing amazing grandfathers, and the characters in both those films are played with a lot of warmth and affection. We both miss him so much as an actor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:53:33] Katherine also finds the connection she\u2019s made with actors like Thilakan so interesting, because she\u2019s coming to the films as an outsider, and they connect to something inside of her. The emotions of a character like the grandfather feel so lived in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:55:24] Jayabharathi plays Jayaram\u2019s mother in the film, and there\u2019s something about her performance that\u2019s very soulful. She\u2019s just accepted that loss is a huge part of her life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:56:31] The impression Harsha has is that this women is so beaten down by loss that she\u2019s afraid to embrace her son too tightly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:56:42] It\u2019s a small role for Jayabharathi, and there\u2019s a lot of back and forth between the grandfather and the doctor \u2013 they know they have to call her, but they don\u2019t even know how they begin to tell her what\u2019s happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:56:59] The only thing she wants to know from her son\u2019s friends is if he ever thought about her or said that he loved her. It\u2019s so profoundly sad. Harsha felt that scene was a hint that this was someone too afraid to even ask her own son if he loved her. We learn so much about her just from these small moments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:57:54] Don\u2019t be put off by us talking about how sad the film is \u2013 the sad part is only in the final portion of the film. The majority of it is filled with life and joy. It\u2019s a very joyful movie in a lot of ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:58:16] It\u2019s also a very realistic film \u2013 this is what life is, moments of joy peppered with moments of sorrow. Sometimes you have to learn how to go on, and other times, it\u2019s just so hard to go on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:58:48] Harsha noted that in the end credits there was a separate crew for the underwater scenes. It makes sense you would need someone with expertise shooting underwater, and they seem to have brought someone in from Mumbai to do that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:59:14] There\u2019s a trope called \u201csymbolic serene submersion\u201d, which comes into this movie a lot, where people are under water, and there\u2019s this feeling of escape, and of some sort of peace. Underwater scenes can represent escape, but also a great deal of turmoil that, maybe, we\u2019re trying to escape from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [00:59:50] The shots might not be technically great, but they suit the film and what it\u2019s trying to convey. But we\u2019re going to see some much better underwater scenes in one of the other movies we\u2019re going to be talking about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:00:03] Harsha is a big fan of underwater scenes, and the trope she just learned about, \u201csymbolic serene submersion\u201d. And it connects us to our next film, Mosayile Kuthira Meenukal<\/strong>, directed by Ajith Pillai.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:01:23] This is the only film Ajith Pillai has made, and it\u2019s one of the harder films to find (though you can rent it on YouTube<\/a>). He seems to be working in advertising these days, and we hope he hears this just so we can tell him just how much we both love this film. You MUST go watch this film!<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:02:06] The title of the film is a tongue-twister, and most people wouldn\u2019t know what it means, but there\u2019s a conversation in the movie that explains it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:02:38] The movie is bifurcated \u2013 you start off with the story of Asif Ali\u2019s character, Alex, who is the youngest son of a family where the men are very proud of how many kids they have. He\u2019s the last child in this huge family. His parents die because they had him when they were so old. He\u2019s pretty much a young guy left by himself to figure out the world on his own. He eventually gets into trouble with the law, and goes to jail, where one of his relatives is one of the wardens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:03:34] Alex decides to break out of jail, and at the same time, there\u2019s another prisoner doing the same thing. But then the movie does a complete flip. Asif Ali\u2019s portion is drenched in dark colours, representing the hedonism of his life. But then the film becomes light and airy when we get to Akbar Ali\u2019s story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:04:00] Akbar Ali is played by Sunny Wayne, and as much as Alex has no aim in life, Akbar Ali has one aim: to get back to his home in Lakshadweep. As the film progresses, we find out why it\u2019s so imperative for him to return. As Alex travels with Akbar Ali, he learns the story of this beautiful romance between Akbar Ali, and Isa, played by Swathi Reddy, who is just a delight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:05:01] The film is, essentially, about how Akbar Ali gets to his goal, and how Alex finds his aim in life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:05:12] The film is from 2014, so we\u2019ve got a definite New Gen style. The film is filled with lots of amusing and interesting details, including a reference to the Mohanlal film Season<\/strong>. The film is very deep in its references to Malayalam cinema.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:06:04] The desire for the men of the family to prove their virility is represented through a boxing match. Katherine notes that boxing is kind of a pointless activity, but so is proving your virility by having so many children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:06:52] Harsha points out that there\u2019s a certain Lijo Jose Pelissery-ness to the film as well. And the music director of the film\u2019s beautiful music is Prashant Pillai, who works in a lot of LJP\u2019s films.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:07:17] We loved Sunny Wayne in this movie, he\u2019s so convincing as a romantic hero. He\u2019s a solid enough actor, but in this film he gets a really meaty role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:07:44] Katherine loves his voice! And she adored this character and his relationship with Isa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:08:00] The escape is through dark tunnels, and then they arrive in the beautiful, light-filled world of Lakshadweep \u2013 it\u2019s like a re-birth for both Alex and Akbar Ali.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:08:42] There are some specific beliefs about the sea that are tied into this movie, one being that whatever you take from the sea, the sea will take it back. That feeds a through-line in the movie. Isa tells Akbar Ali that whatever you take from the sea, you\u2019ll have to give it back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:09:06] Akbar Ali, in 2022 parlance, is a bit of a simp for Isa. She\u2019s in love with another guy, but Akbar Ali is so willing to do anything she wants so she\u2019ll be happy. Her love interest gets Akbar Ali involved in this illegal business of hunting for whales, which is how he ends up in jail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:10:03] There\u2019s also a complicated Islamic tradition in which a man cannot remarry a woman unless she\u2019s been married to someone else afterwards. Akbar Ali becomes the \u201cmiddle guy\u201d for Isa to remarry her husband again. That\u2019s why he has to get back to Lakshadweep \u2013 to give her \u201ctalaak\u201d, ie, to divorce her so she can remarry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:10:28] We see his perception of Isa \u2013 he\u2019s profoundly in love with her. It\u2019s about at the interval point where she turns to him and asks him to marry her, and we suddenly think, hey, she\u2019s in love with him, too! <\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:10:54] As Alex tries to piece together the threads of the story, we realize what a loser Isa\u2019s first husband is. The speculation becomes, then, that Akbar Ali knows this, and he deliberately chooses to sell the whale in a place where he will be caught, so that Isa won\u2019t be able to marry her first husband again, or at least not right away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:12:01] Isa is indulged by her father, who was not in support of her marrying the first husband. Isa returns to her family after the divorce, and when the couple is planning to remarry, her father demands a huge maher, which is the bride price, and this is how the selling of the whale connects to it all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:12:39] Adding to this is Deena, who is very cute, often there for comic relief \u2013 she ends up being the love interest for Alex. She\u2019s going to Lakshadweep to work for the post office there. She mentions something her mother said \u2013 that the greatest purpose in life is to make other people smile, and Alex supports Akbar Ali because he realises that if he can fulfill the things he needs to, he might be able to smile again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:13:17] It\u2019s a very simple message, that we just need to be nice to other people and make them feel happy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:13:32] Except for the ex-husband, Hisham, there are no real bad characters in this movie. There\u2019s nobody with malevolent intentions, and that makes it such an enjoyable watch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:13:47] There are people who are negligent or a little bit self-centred (like Alex), but generally everybody is kind of nice, and it\u2019s shot in this beautiful location.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:14:01] Anarkali<\/strong> was another film from around the same time, shot in Lakshadweep, but Katherine found it very stark \u2013 a kind of unromantic view of Lakshadweep. But with this film, both of us *so* wanted to go there, to see just how beautiful it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:14:41] The film also makes you think about this island and how at the mercy of the sea it is. The subtext of the film is about the fragility of that landscape and how it can get taken back into the sea. This plays into the fatalistic view of the people who live along the sea and on the islands \u2013 they\u2019re very much at the mercy of the sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:15:16] That connects to Moonam Pakkam<\/strong>, too, because the only time we see coastal\/fisher people in that film is in relation to the local story about a body returning on the third day. The family is desperate to get a search party out, but the people who live and work on this coast are just, you have to wait, the body will wash up. They\u2019re very resigned to this, and in this film we see the same kind of fatalistic view of the environment they live in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:15:45] Akbar Ali says at one point that he hadn\u2019t realized before how beautiful the place they live in is until he saw it through the eyes of a tourist he was guiding. Aside: it\u2019s really hard \u2013 almost impossible \u2013 to visit Lakshadweep, and also hard to get a license to shoot there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:16:59] There are so many tiny details in the film that really make you connect to the characters, like the seasickness remedy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:17:43] This is a movie, too, where being Muslim is not problematized at all. There\u2019s less of this, maybe, today, but there are times when people have looked at the hijab and felt some kind of civilizational anxiety, because women in Kerala did not wear hijab until the Gulf migration started. Prior to this they wore a thattam, essentially a piece of cloth that sat on your head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:18:32] But for Isa in this film, wearing a hijab is not a problem. She\u2019s shot beautifully, and she\u2019s given the full heroine treatment even though she\u2019s dressed very modestly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:19:00] Katherine points out the misconceptions outsiders can have about Muslim women \u2013 note, she says \u201chijab\u201d, but what she means here is women wearing full burqas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:19:38] The way the two female characters are portrayed is also interesting \u2013 for example, Deena is a Christian, and in Malayalam cinema, Christians are much more central characters, and Muslims are much more marginal. Here, Deena is the comic relief while Isa gets the full heroine treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:20:14] The hijab and abaya are treated as items of beauty and adornment, much in the way a sari would in other films.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:20:23] When Katherine watches this film, she\u2019s often profoundly sad that Ajith Pillai has not made another film, but also grateful that he made this film. As Harsha says, the film is a treasure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:20:42] Katherine notes that we often complain about some of the films we watch, even if they fit a theme we\u2019re exploring, but for the two of us, we are just gushing over this gem of a film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:21:14] Aikbareesa<\/a>, which is the theme of these characters, sung by Preeti Pillai, and directed by her brother Prashant Pillai, is SO beautiful<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:22:07] After all that gushing, we turn to the final film of our discussion, Akasathinte Niram<\/strong>, directed by Dr. Biju.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:22:16] Anyone who has watched a Dr. Biju film knows it is a lot of vibes, not a lot of talking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:22:25] Katherine loves his films, and issues a disclaimer that she is connected to him as an acquaintance on Facebook, and he has generously given her access to some of his films that she otherwise might not have had a chance to see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:22:47] He\u2019s a director that places his films in a lot of festivals, they aren\u2019t generally mainstream commercial films. For Katherine, she thinks you\u2019re either going to get his films, or you\u2019re not. He\u2019s also a director who is interested in issues \u2013 like his film with Suraj Venjaramoodu (Names Unknown\/Perariyathavar<\/strong>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:23:24] She has heard the phrase \u201cpoverty porn\u201d aimed at his films, especially Perariyathavar<\/strong>, but she thinks that\u2019s a little unfair \u2013 he is a director who is absolutely interested in issues, and over the years she\u2019s grown to appreciate his films.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:23:42] In today\u2019s film, none of the characters has a name. It\u2019s set on Neil Island, part of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, on the eastern side of India. There are parts of Andaman & Nicobar that are forbidden for people to enter, because there are indigenous people there who have not had contact with the outside world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:25:19] In a lot of ways, the Andaman Islands are a liminal space where Indian laws don\u2019t apply in certain parts of the islands. <\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:25:38] As much as the sea is a border, think of these islands as a liminal space between the sea and human society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:25:46] In the film, the island is not named, it\u2019s very isolated, and none of these characters have names. That means we end up with a film that\u2019s kind of a metaphor for human experience in this very isolated nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:26:11] The story starts with a thief, played by Indrajith, who attempts to rob an elderly man, played by Nedumudi Venu, of the money he has made selling handicrafts in an island market. Indrajith hides in the old man\u2019s boat while the old man is onshore and threatens him with a knife to hand over the money when he returns. The old man instead asks if he can swim, starts the boat, and throws the knife overboard when the startled thief drops it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:26:55] This threatening figure is diminished because the old man is unperturbed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:27:03] The old man takes him back to his island home where he lives with a man who stutters, a young woman who does not speak, and a young boy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:27:13] The thief is very angry and destructive at this turn of events, especially when Amala Paul\u2019s character does not respond to his questions, not realizing she cannot or will not speak. It\u2019s a metaphor for the life he has chosen, which is destructive to everyone around him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:28:02] At one point, a doctor, played by Prithviraj, visits the island and remarks, \u201cOh, you\u2019ve been captured too.\u201d The thief attempts to escape when he spots a ship from the shore and tries to catch their attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:28:37] He comes to learn there\u2019s a community for old men who have been abandoned by their family on another part of this island. It allows these men to have a meaningful end of life that they otherwise would not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:29:09] Every time the thief asks the old man why he has been brought to the island, the old man\u2019s response is, \u201cFate.\u201d He has been brought here to understand his real purpose by fate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:29:25] Harsha didn\u2019t get this movie. She wrote down, \u201cLots of vibes, sprinkled with Gandhian philosophy,\u201d specifically in regard to how no one in the house responds to the provocations by the thief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:30:15] Katherine feels the story ties to the other topics in this episode because of the thief\u2019s experiences in the isolation of the sea and edge of the known world being a rebirth. It\u2019s not a complicated idea but that gentle philosophy connects with her. She believes Dr. Biju\u2019s work resonates with you or not because it\u2019s not targeted towards a mainstream audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:31:23] Prithviraj is one of the mainstream stars who has worked with Dr. Biju in Veettilekkulla Vazhi<\/strong>. He works mostly with the peripheral stars of Malayalam cinema like Suraj Venjaramoodu, Nedumudi Venu and Indrajith. He has a specific auteurish language that can be inaccessible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:32:10] The late cinematographer MJ Radhakrishnan worked on a lot of his films and they are gorgeous visually. After his death, his son, Yedhu Radhakrishnan, has taken over as cinematographer for Dr. Biju\u2019s films. He has a crew that he works with consistently who brings a level of quality to his films. Dr. Biju\u2019s son, Govardhan, plays the character of the little boy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:32:50] Harsha remembers a discussion with her dad about the art films he used to watch as a college student and their tropes, which echoes some of the beats of Akashathinte Niram<\/strong> where the thief chooses to remain on the island at the end having been changed by his time on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:34:19] What did Katherine find most appealing by this film? She think there\u2019s space for films that are quiet, small and ask something different of the viewer. Since she reviews a lot of festival films, she has some appreciation for the cinematic language of those films and appreciates them alongside more mainstream films.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:35:32] Katherine admires the conviction of a filmmaker who has decided they will work in this particular space and who surrounds himself with other talented who believe in the same project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:35:47] Harsha quibbles with the Wikipedia summary that states this film is about a man who learns to live in harmony with nature. She thinks the film is about a man who has nowhere to go who finds himself among people who also have nowhere to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:36:27] The connection to the sea comes in as he ends up physically in the middle of nowhere and in the literal margins of the Indian map with people who are figuratively marginalized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:36:43] He is resentful of life and comes to learn that instead of anger, he can respond to the world with less aggression and learn to go along with its rhythms if his material needs are met.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:37:41] Katherine was reminded of the animated film Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys. Toys that do not work perfectly learn even if they do not conform to an ideal of a toy, they belong there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:38:43] It reminded Harsha of a commune or kibbutz. The capitalistic system has no use for them anymore and these people are actively taking themselves out of that machine. They value themselves for their inherent humanness whether they\u2019re aged, disabled or have no skills that are valued in the labor market. Is it too utopian?<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:40:40] The film serves as an invitation to discuss why society discards certain kinds of people. Katherine believes the conversation is important in light of how certain classes of people were abandoned by the system during Covid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:41:29] Charlie<\/strong> is a mainstream film delving into this topic despite being a much brighter film. The theme of people withdrawing from society to heal themselves together is found in many films in the last decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:42:02] The isolation of the island brings out the true nature of people similar to other works of fiction like Lord of the Flies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:42:43] The thief tries to help the older men in the old age commune garden and he is so violent with the tools, they instruct him to be gentle. That remains the core message of the film and possibly what the Wikipedia entry is referring to. Instead of struggling with life and nature, he learns gentleness in how to relate to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:43:34] Many religious philosophies, including Indic religions, emphasize the importance of holding yourself in the moment; to not rush or be impatient in your circumstances, rather to take it all in and observe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:44:03] Harsha finds maybe there is a meta-narrative in the film that asks the viewer to learn from the islanders as well. The plot does not need to rush forward and we do not need to be impatient to know its \u201creal\u201d point. It can simply unfold at its own pace and we can learn about the island and inhabitants in its time. We meet the old men and the doctor in its own time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:44:42] Dr. Biju\u2019s mind works in a similar way and his films are in conversation with other films like Lijo Jose Pellissery\u2019s where there\u2019s a lot of action but the character does not change over the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:45:44] Talking to Katherine has helped Harsha gain an appreciation for this film and this filmmaking style.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:46:17] The thief is transformed by very simple experiences in which the other characters do not respond to his anger. <\/p>\n\n\n\n [01:47:12] We covered a lot of ground in this episode and went from feeling uncomfortable with this theme in the previous episodes about the sea to seeing common themes develop and greater ease in understanding how these films are in dialogue with each other and narratives about the physical and metaphorical borders of society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Subscribe to our feed here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can connect with us on Bluesky:\u00a0@polandine-patti.bsky.social<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n