the trappings of life...

Elippathyam (Rat Trap, Malayalam; 1982)
Story, Direction: Adoor Gopalakrishnan

We are all caught in cages. The trouble is we do not know we are trapped and go around in circles with our daily chores. Like a  rat in her trap, the rat continues eating the bait left there. So here we are, caught in our comfort zones and contending with the status quo. We do not realise our fate is sealed, but we still carry on unperturbed, like an ostrich burying its head underground, hoping everything will disappear.

We find this approach easier. Cracking our brains and thinking of the possibilities of things that may or may not go wrong is exhausting. May as well just go with the flow.

The master moviemaker, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, came up with this simple story with symbolic reference to the changing times in Kerala, where feudalistic ways slowly evolved by revolution by the people. The feudal lords, who did not keep up with the change of the times, were just run over.

Rat trap is a metaphor for life. The menacing rat ensnared in the film just shows the reality of life that the characters lead.

Three siblings of a landlord clan live in an old disused ancestral home that had seen better times. There is the elder brother who does nothing but eat, sleep, read newspapers and oils himself. Then a 30-year-old sister is the designated home keeper who primarily runs the household. She cooks, washes cleans and maintains the house. She longs to be married and start a family, but the elder brother, who assumes the role of the head of the family, seems not interested in getting a prospective groom for her. Maybe he just turns down all proposals to keep her slogging for him. The youngest is still in high school, pampered and demands all niceties. She is madly in love with a boy. She elopes with her boyfriend, leaving her rat trap home for good.

Different people have different ways of dealing with the predicament they are in. Some just take everything in a stride, hoping that things will change. Better times will ensue. Others would not all the negativities lying down but use their every last energy to entangle themselves from the offending forces. Whilst they are others, who would use their statuses and every thread of opportunity to be in control, pinning others down to work for them.

A must-watch.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.

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We chose our life path?

Swayamvaram (On Own Will, Malayalam; 1972)
Story, Direction: Adoor Gopalakrishnan

When things happen in our lives, were they predetermined, or did they happen because of our actions, something we decided to choose out of our free will? 

This story and debutante director, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, 1972, says that our fate is all our doing. We cannot blame anybody for anything. Everything is the result of our own will.

Sita (Saradha) and Vishwam (Madhu) are both graduates. They probably are eloping from their families and decide to start life anew in another town. Both have big plans. Sita wants to spend happy times with her beau, and Vishwam is excited about his manuscript, hoping to be a fabulous writer. Soon reality sinks in. His story does not excite the publishers when employment is low and appreciating arts is the last thing on people's minds. 

Their savings get smaller, and they progressively move from their hotel to the cheaper housing area and, finally, a squatter home. Vishwam then gets a lecturer's job at a private college. It does not work out, and he has to be content as a clerk at a timber mill. 

Despite the general poverty, they find happiness in each other. A child comes in the way to cement their relationship. Misery never seems to leave them. He contracted an illness from a fellow colleague and succumbs to it. Sita is left alone, with a baby, without a job or a future to carve for herself and her baby without a spouse. 

Sita chose to run away from her home with her lover. Vikram decided to marry without securing a job for himself and his new family life. Vikram agreed not to be aggressive with his non-paying employers. He also chose to go out of his way to care for his seriously ill co-worker.

Their neighbours also live the life they choose. There is a two-timing wife who digs money from her lover to support her husband's drinking problem. Then there is a smuggler who decided to live in comfort despite being on the police's hit list. Everybody makes a choice, not out of free will but of needs. Things are not straightforward. We do not sway topsy turvy like a leaf on a moving stream decided by the wind and the water's hydraulic forces but utilise our mental capacity and primal needs to pave the life we want. 

This movie reminded me of Satyajit Ray's 'Pather Pancholi' and A. Vincent's 'Tholabaram'. Pether Pancholi, because of the arty feel of this movie. The use of sounds of people, roads and machines tell the story rather than dialogue to tell its story. The gradual fall from a place of comfort to one of hopelessness mirrors that of 'Tholabaram'. And Saradha acted in both these similar roles.

The neighbours were not helicoptered into their current situations. The fact that one prostitutes herself to support herself and her husband is her own making, not by design.

So, at the movie's end, Sita is left at a similar crossroads. She must decide whether to take another male partner's hand or catch the bull by its horns and steer her and her child's life. She looks resolved, but we, the viewers, are left guessing her next move.

But then, revolutions, which are epitomes of self-determination, do not always bring balance or contentment to society. Even revolutions do not give satisfaction.

(P.S. This is one of the first Malayalam art movies.)

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The need for a routine and human interaction!

Mathilukal (Malayalam, The Walls, 1990)
Written & Directed by: Adoor Gopalakrishna
(Autobiography of Vaikom Muhammad Basheer)

This is another classic from Kerala's son of the soil. It tickles our minds to consider two things. Firstly, human beings are creatures of routine. The other is we are social animals.

A routine schedule gives them a purpose to this entity called life. No matter how purposeless the rituals may be, we would do it diligently as if it were a higher calling. We would find a legitimate explanation to justify our actions, perhaps give a scientific twist to it. In absence of these 'unwritten' rules and left to our own devices, we would probably just rot away trying to fulfil the indulges that satisfy our primal needs. This would just make the human race a band of sloppy sluggards. Soon enough, the species would be decimated from the face of Earth.

Being social animals, we need to interact with each other. This interaction could be in person, via mail, in cyberspace or just by hearing a responsive voice, as we learn to appreciate from this film. And the voice does not need a face to go with it.

Being in prison cuts us off from our desire to be free. It put us into a routine, which hopefully will make us reassess our existence. The routine nature of life there hopes to put us back into the loop of living purposefully.

Having human interaction is construed as a luxury for inmates. Hence, solitary confinement is threatened as a stick to cow them to conform to the rules of gaols.

This legendary offering with a string of accolades behind its name tells of the author’s autobiography during his incarceration during the pre-independence era in the 1940s when he was charged with treason for writing ‘anti-National’ articles. The film can roughly be divided into two parts.

In the first, we learn that he is respected by jailers and fellow inmates. He gets on jolly well with other prisoners, considering the usual stereotype about prison politics we get from movies. Everyone has a backstory justifying their crime and the circumstances that pushed them to commit them. Basheer, the protagonist, is well respected, for everyone knows about his incisive writings.

One day, there was quite an excitement when many political prisoners were released when the colonial masters had a change of heart. Unfortunately, Basheer's name is not on the list. Basheer is left alone without his friends. The small rose garden he cultivated around the compound started growing, giving him some tranquillity.

One day, whilst tending his garden, whistling, Basheer hears a feminine voice from the other side of the tall prison wall. What started as time-pass slowly evolved from a non-essential banter to possibly something romantic. It came to a time when that was the most looked forward moment of the day!

Finally, when the day came for release, Basheer was actually in two minds about whether he should leave as he would miss his conversationalist across the wall. How ironic. He wanted to leave the prison all the while, but now he is sad about leaving. How routine and meaningful interaction brought purpose to life!

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The morphing teenage mind...

Anantaram (Monologue, Thereafter, 1987)

Written and Directed by Adoor Gopalakrishnan

Adoor Gopalakrishnan is said to be a director of such standing only comparable to doyens of the new wave cinema like the Great Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen. His works are a joy to watch. Still, they may appear a tad too slow for some people's liking. This one is a story of a teenager who slowly evolves to be psychologically disturbed. It showcases, rather clearly, how a bubbly, bright child who seems to excel in everything transforms gradually into a mesh of a confused young adult. It stars Mammothy, Shobana and the protagonist, Asokan.

Children are all born beautiful, with a chest full of hope, just bursting with ambitions to change the world. The world is their oyster, and the sky is the limit of what they can achieve. To seal their confidence, their parents jump at every milestone of his achievement. They think they have with them a genius who is going to go places and make them proud one day. Then reality hits! Like a head-on crash with an oncoming train, it does.

Adoor Gopalakrishnan

The child morphs into a different species altogether. What happened, you wonder. The child with a promising future ahead of him has spiralled down a rabbit hole so deep and dark it leaves him in a complex maze of mesh. The raging teenage hormones interplay with the developing brain opening many confusing frontiers that blind the young adult.

The parents are in a dilemma. "Is it nature that is at fault," they ask as they scrutinise each other's family tree to fingerprint its possible origin of a defective gene. As always, matters of the mind are not straightforward. They hurt each other's sentiments. "Or is nurture," they ponder. Both will wiggle their fingers at each other's lack of parental skills or absenteeism in parenting.

They wonder if they had overlooked the company the child kept with. Could they have been more proactive? After so many questions and much soul searching later, they will accept the whole transformation as fate or karma. They would then try to do the best of the resources available at their disposal.

Ajayan (Asokan) is an orphan infant left behind by his mother at the maternity hospital. He is adopted by the doctor there. He grows up a loner, often left to his own devices. He seems a quick learner but quickly gets bored. Ajayan narrates his life story, but soon everything becomes disjointed as he falls prey to the dark shadow of the black dog. We, the audience, get confused between reality and falsehood. A good movie.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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