Munnariyippu: Warning not to romance with evil!

It is not very often that Indian cinema romances with out-of-the box themes. The typical Bollywood-type films have a set formula: either they are pure song and drama, or stories with quintessential superhero donning every frame. Even the regional cinema has not veered away too much from such masala ingredients. However, we do find an exception or two here and there. In fact, recent films in Marathi and Malayalam have been experimenting a lot on unusual themes and scripts to great success.

Director: Venu

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The 2014 Malayalam film Munnariyippu (warning) is a case in point. It is a film which does not shy away from shocking the audience at the end. If the director was keen on making it a pure commercial success perhaps he would not have taken such a risk. Many times the handling of the script has much to do with commercial considerations. And yet director Venu (a famed cinematographer) to his credit has also tasted commercial success with this directorial venture. This is because the narration is convincing.

The film deals with a convicted murderer CK Raghavan, played brilliantly by veteran Mammootty, and a journalist Anjali Arackal (Aparna Gopinath) who, having chanced upon his rare writing skills, strikes a deal with a publisher to bring out his autobiography. However, what unfolds is a strange development wherein Raghavan finds it hard to take off his writing project. When the deadline is nearing journalist Anjali, who has to eventually translate the autobiography into English, gets nervous and impatient, only to come face to face with something she would never have imagined.

The film has a rather sluggish pace, raising many a question in the process. However, the final moment is shocking and can linger on for sometime. One cannot but appreciate the ambience in which the director has built up the characters. The film is also a visual reminder that human beings are so very unpredictable!

- Melwyn Pinto SJ

Visaranai: Saga of police brutality!

Visaranai, a Tamil film that was released in the beginning of this year, is the official entry from India for the Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category. Whether the film will eventually be shortlisted for the award is anyone’s guess. However, one cannot discredit the effect the film will have on the audience in depicting the state of affairs in our police system. It is interesting that despite the film being a statement against the State machinery, it went on to win the national award last year. This suggests that the State is open to critique itself which is a positive sign.  

Director: Vetrimaaran

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The film is based on the novel Lock Up by M. Chandrakumar. It narrates how four labourers are wrongly implicated by the police in a high profile robbery case in which they are under immense pressure to find the culprits. However, things dramatically change when the four labourers are saved by a Good Samaritan. But, as fate would have it, the Samaritan himself eventually traps them into committing more crimes and thus leads them into doom in the quagmire of corrupt nexus among the police the bureaucracy, and the political establishment.

The film is made in utmost simplicity sans any superfluous embellishments. However, the precise narration and editing help in putting across the narrative quite matter-of-factly. The entrails of the police system are exposed in such a way that no one will argue that our police system works any better than that. The betrayal and the violence that emerge at tandem make the film gory in parts, but when one considers the overall objective of the film, one cannot see the film otherwise. The police system in India has its own complexities and pressures. The long desired police reforms are yet to see the light of day. Till then films like Visaranai will have a field day in exposing it threadbare. 

- Melwyn Pinto SJ

Sairat: Love in the time of family honour

Nagaj Manjule, the celebrated directed of the cult Marathi film Fandry has come out with yet another compelling tale in Sairat. The film is very important for our times, especially where caste and creed take priority over blood relations; where humanity is sacrificed on the altar of so called family honour and pride.

Director: Nagraj Manjule

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The film is a suave narration of love story between a boy (Parshya) from a poor family and a girl (Archi) from the upper echelons. As expected, it is a love tale that cannot be! And hence all the drama has to unfold. As the narrative proceeds, though, there seems to be a semblance of normalcy appearing, and yet what seems to win at the end is the tragic ‘family honour’.

The whole film is a realistic scripting of what seems to happen in many parts of Indian conservative societies. It is not making undue overt statements either. The characters in the film are the next door neighbours going about their daily routine. However, things take a serious turn when what seems normal is ‘shattered’ by the unusual love tale.

This is indeed an important film for our time – a time which has developed so much scientifically and technologically and yet backward in its reasoning and attitudes to life. Not just for the narrative it unfolds, but for the boldness it exhibits in presenting the day to day events in all its beauty and rawness. In fact, this film has the potential to both entertain and shock, placing before us the limitless passions – both positive and negative – at work among humans. The young new actors – deserve plaudits for the life they have added to the narrative.

- Melwyn Pinto SJ

Spotlight: Journalism at its best

Two recent events, if taken seriously, will go a long way in helping modern journalists to have a relook at their profession, especially for those broadcast journalists who seem to think that shouting down the other and having the last word at all cost is the best form of journalism. The first is the film Spotlight and the second the Panama Papers expose by the Indian Express and other print media of international newspaper syndicate. Both underscore the need for rigorous, painstaking efforts that have to be put in if one wants to unearth what can be termed as serious, committed and socially responsible journalism.

Director: Tom McCarthy

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The film Spotlight deals with the high quality journalism of Boston Globe newspaper. In fact, Boston Globe has a tradition of many such incredible journalistic efforts. This was made possible due to the formation of a small band of journalists named as Spotlight. The present film deals with the investigative reportage of the child abuse by Catholic priests for decades together in Boston diocese and the cover up of it by the highest Church officials, including Cardinal Bernard Francis Law.

The film is important for several reasons. While the issue that is dealt in the film may be unsettling and unnerving for the Catholic clergy, none can debate the authenticity of the rigorous investigative work undertaken by the newspaper. The same is displayed in the film as well. Secondly, the film also shows that it takes real energy, pain and hard work, not to forget commitment and sincerity, to be a good reporter, and even more, to be a good newspaper. Thirdly, the film in no way tries to patronise or pontificate a type of witch-hunting journalism. Rather, it shows that the guilty, especially those who inflicted untold miseries on children, must be exposed. As the editor of the newspaper Marty Baron, played by Live Schreiber says, it is not the individuals that journalism in general must target, but the system.

There is a scene in the film where editor Marty has an audience with Cardinal Law. Cardinal Law offers all necessary help and support to the new editor since, as the Cardinal states, it is important for institutions to work together for greater cause. However, Marty declines it politely stating that for a newspaper to function it needs to stand alone.

The other significant scene from the point of view of journalism is when reporter Michael Rezendes, played by Mark Ruffalo, goes to the judge to seek permission to examine sensitive documents which by then were declassified through a court order. The judge asks, “Where is the editorial responsibility in publishing records of this nature?” To which Rezendes quips, “Where is the editorial responsibility in not publishing them?”

The film must be studied closely by all those journalists and future journalists who wish to take their profession seriously.

- Melwyn Pinto SJ