With the onset of a good number of path breaking cinema in mainstream Mollywood, it is the place to be for new and aspiring talent. The same applies to a self-proclaimed movie buff that I am who initially did not indulge into Malayalam cinema, owing to language barrier but slowly learning to overcome it with the increasing trend of subtitling for regional movies.

This piece is merely focused on a movie that triggered so many emotions and thoughts once I finished watching it and simply coerced me to write about it. Munnariyippu was a movie highly rated by one and all, but left me disappointed and angry to an extent that I even swore to never watch a movie by looking at its ratings. But, as I laid down trying to get some sleep and get over it, a couple of things kept coming back into my mind over and over again & suddenly there was this eureka moment that brought out its brilliance. Let me elaborate (spoilers ahead):

The Smile – A smile is always related to happiness, mischief or, sometimes, dramatics but then there are very few which are disturbing – Remember the smile of Hitchcock‘s Psycho? The smile that Mammootty mimics during the climax triggers confusion at the beginning and eventually turns into a fearful,haunting one that would give you sleepless nightmarish nights.To bring this out from an artist who has gone too ‘mainstream’ in the recent past and making it work,are the risks that the film-maker took and it has paid off handsomely!

The Title – The word play allows us to interpret this title in different ways: Deadline would suit the plot and screenplay however if we are go by the subtexts that this movie employs, the best description would be WARNING! And warning is what it is.

The Subtext – Imagine the level of reading-in-between the lines or sub texting in simple terms that would have happened during the script discussion. To bring some perspective into the sub texting that is embedded, a character from Primal Fearthat gives you no decipherable clue to point out that he/she may be the culprit could be cited. However, in Munnariyippu, even though it is not that simple to understand, if the audience chooses to put their grey cells to use, there is always a subtly buried clue that can be dug out. The protagonist, CK Raghavan who denies killing the ladies he is imprisoned for, avoids an elder couple at the beach; does he have anything to hide or is he guilty? There a lot of factors that instigates him to go for a kill. A few of them are

  1. His definition of freedom: It is quite fascinating; anything that intrudes his space, hinders his freedom. So if someone comes to know of the reality or accuse him of killing, he either avoids them or kills them altogether.
  2. His dwelling: The first house he is stationed at appears like a small-scale jail.He has no visitors or rather allowed none, minds his own business and has food delivered at doorstep regularly.
  3. He is an escapist: This is visible when he listens attentively to and passes comments on the broken-fantasized story of the boy employed in tea-shop who delivers his food.Couple of indulgent Meta-moments too, when the boy narrates the story, first with Mammootty’s contemporary Mohanlal in the lead & then real-life son, Dulquer Salman.
  4. He is lazy: When he is displaced for the second time and has to cook his own food, something inside him craves for the comfort of being fed without cooking. This shot at night wherein the rice is boiling over from the pot (onto the fire) in complete darkness insinuates towards the revelation that dawns on Raghavan, that Jail is indeed his lair and time is of the essence.

Weak woman – The journalist is a woman who claims to be a freelancer and wants to make it big but is never seen writing except for the one small piece, which by the way is sourced from Raghavan‘s diary. She is arrogant yet not shrewd enough to avoid the problems she runs into and she does not keep her words.

The Build up and Climax – A thriller in general tends to keep the audience engaged with half hanging clues and open loops but this one does not promise of them. The story simmers so slowly to boredom and frustration that the final blow becomes the Awe-factor that the audience is looking for. While it might not be totally fair to compare across genres, I was reminded of Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven which also follows a similar pattern until it explodes in the final few minutes. It is an illusion (a cheating of sorts) to show less is more, by filling the rest with dull content. But then these dull moments are placed to close the loops based on sheer logic. To believe that your audience is skillful to get it shows the confidence that the director has placed on them.

No wonder this movie reminds me of magic. To quote THE PRESTIGE

Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts.
The first part is called “The Pledge”. The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered and normal. But of course, it probably isn’t.
The second act is called “The Turn”. The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you’re looking for the secret, but you won’t find it, because of course you’re not really looking. You don’t really want to know. You want to be fooled. But you wouldn’t clap yet. Because making something disappear isn’t enough; you have to bring it back. That’s why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call “The Prestige”.

Such great Magic is indeed woven and unearthed by Munnariyippu!!!

Column written by Swarna.