Jallikattu
Director:
Lijo Jose Pellissery
Cast:
- Antony Varghese as Antony
- Chemban Vinod Jose as Kaalan Varkey
- Santhy Balachandran as Sophie
- Sabumon Abdusamad as Kuttachan
- Tinu Pappachan as Sub Inspector of Police
Genre – Thriller, Drama, Adventure
Jallikattu
“Lijo Jose Pellissery”
Introduction
For the past few weeks, I have been hearing Lijo jose Pellissery’s movie Jallikattu as India’s official entry to the Best International Feature Film category of the 93rd Academy Awards. Lijo Jose Pellissery is my favorite director of present day Malayalam cinema. I am a huge fan of Lijo. His style of direction is what makes all of his movies special.
Synopsis
A buffalo escapes before being slaughtered and causes total chaos to the lives of people living in a remote village. The story progress with various incidents that happens while the villagers are trying to catch this bull on loose.
Review
I do not want to talk about the actors. All of them have portrayed their roles perfectly. This movie is not centered to any particular hero or villain. In my opinion, the way by which this whole movie make us understand certain social issues and basic human behavior is what makes it special.
Now what are such social issues that we can relate to our present day life? Let us check it out
In Jallikattu, there is a sequence when police (played by Tinu Pappachan) comes to check on the bull for the very first time. The crowd of villagers demand the bull to be captured immediately as it is affecting their daily lives. Police says that sorting out an issue like this takes time, as capturing such an animal requires higher authority approvals for them to proceed legally. Very soon, the situation turns problematic. By the next arrival of police in the village, the villagers are so angry due all the damages caused by the bull and blames the police officers for delaying to take action from their side. The villagers burn the police car as a protest and start manhandling them. I feel here the director was trying to show similar situations we see in India where people taking law in their hands when justice is delayed.
In another instance a landowner complaints to the police about his crops being destroyed by the escaped buffalo. The police officer just ignores his statement and does not take it seriously. At the same time things are taken much more seriously when the village Church priest calls the police in regards to the buffalo issue. The Church priest even warns Kaalan Varkey (Played by Chemban Vinod) by saying that he will take actions to close down his slaughterhouse. In the midst of all these troubles, the church priest is shown eating buffalo meat brought from outside the village and does not even care about the trouble in the village.
Here the director shows us the real face of a religious authority, whom just fools its believers by convincing that they are with them. However, in reality they just hide from the real problem and uses believers for their own benefits. We are also shown their influence over police and law.
The climax of the movie shows yet another striking thing. We can see Antony (Antony Varghese) goes near the injured bull and kills it. When the other villagers arrive, he tries to claim victory for the bull’s capture. The villagers refuse to accept this and start a fight with Antony. Everybody wants to take claim of the bull. We can see a similar sequence in the final scene of the movie where early man from the beginning of humanity is shown.
I felt here, the director is trying to show us that there is always an inner animalistic behavior in humans, which comes out when we are greedy and selfish. This behavior of humans will not change and will last till the end of humanity.
Cinematography
The beauty of the village, the race behind the bull and all tensions are perfectly captured in the movie.
Really loved the birds eye view here
The buffalo looking up to the villagers from the well it fell in during the chase.
Kuttachan arrested and coming. A perfect leading line to the subject (Kuttachan with police) and rule of thirds framing.
Conclusion
Now leaving all the mystery layers of Jallikettu, I was very amazed on how Lijo has constructed cinematic sequences for this movie. Right from the moment the buffalo escaped, I was thrilled. From there for each moment, I was anxiously waiting to see what will happen next. When the villagers carried out the investigation of the buffalo at night, I felt that I was a part of them too.
An amazing combination of cinematography with proper editing and background music makes us feel that the buffalo is nearby even though it is not shown much on screen. This kind of a movie requires lot of coordination especially taking the bull chase scenes at different angles and that too at night. I am not sure if there is any green screen used here, as I have not seen any making videos for this movie. (I think I need to look for such videos, it will be interesting to see the behind the scenes for this movie)
I also felt some nostalgic moments when I saw the movie since the village shown in this movie is exactly like the place where my mother grew up. I remember as a child visiting her place and witnessing some social issues of that village where the people help out each other to find solution.
There are many scenes in the movie that is shot continuously without camera being cut for a long time. In many of those scenes, people come in and go out. Such shots are hard to execute as the timing is very important and actors might make lot of mistakes while shooting such scenes. I feel all those might have really tested the patience of the director. (Saying cut and doing retakes repeatedly)
Lijo Jose Pellissery is a patient director and Jallikettu is a fine piece of art. I am happy that my favorite director’s movie is selected as India’s official entry to the Oscars foreign film category.
Author: Aromal Anil
