It happened once before!

 Joji (Malayalam, 2021)

We always complain about the conundrum that we are stuck in. We brood, curse and swear at the people who brought about all these. Then we stop and go about doing our own things.  When someone takes the trouble to push the boundary and actually try to change the course of their lives, nobody wants to be part of it. The rest do not want to be seen as complicit as it would tarnish their image of it but secretly, deep inside, they are happy that something is being done. 

When the plot hits a snag and the perpetrator is exposed, nobody wants to have any link to it. Conversely, they condemn the whole exercise and start talking about morality. They claim ignorance and assert that natural justice or the rule of law should prevail. Generally, people are unthinking sheep, quite happy following the shepherd like what the herd is doing. Little do they realise that the shepherd only has one sole purpose in life - to fatten his flock and march them to the slaughter.

This Malayalam film is supposed to be based on Shakespeare's Macbeth, but there are no three witches and their prophecies. In the strict Panachel Kuttappan household live three sons - Jomon, Jaison and Joji. Kuttapan, the controlling patriarch, has an iron-fisted way of controlling his offsprings and their dependents. He is pretty dogmatic about the management of his home and his property. Jomon is divorced, probably due to his drinking habit. Jaison is living in his father's estate with his wife and his teenage son. Joji is an engineering dropout, just loafing around, passing time, knowing that he will inherit his share of his father's large estate one day with his passing. 

Joji thinks his days of splurging were nearing when Kuttappan has a massive stroke and is bedridden. Initially, his moribund condition was supposed to be terminal, but with a craniotomy, he improves. Lucid and nursing back to health, Joji has a harrowing experience when he tries to con the old man to sign a cheque. The alert and buff patient almost chokes Joji. 

Realising that Kuttappan is not dying any time soon, Joji drugs him. A few family members appear seemingly aware of Joji's shenanigans but decide to turn a blind eye. The senior had been quite nasty to everyone in the family. The old man dies, but everyone is tight-lipped about his sudden demise despite an initial improvement of health. 

To a frightened child, every shadow of a movement appears like an apparition, they say. Joji, worried that his crime will be unrecovered, starts committing more crimes, burying himself more in the quicksand that he eventually finds too difficult to extricate.

Lesson to be learnt: People are forever looking for that sucker to do all the dirty job. Change is difficult, they know, and they promise all the support that the sacrificial lamb needs. When the push comes to shove, they bail out, preferring to hang on to the thicker branch for better support. People would suddenly talk about morality, not wanting to rock the boat and need to maintain equilibrium. 

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

Future as we make it or is predestined?

Macbeth (2015)


It is amazing that a writer in the 16th century can pen out such a play so intricate in its emotional interplay. This is, of course, the work of a particular man of commoner stock from Stratford-upon-Avon. Playing the main character of this play seem to the lifetime ambitions of many an actor including Orson Welles, Patrick Stewart, Sean Connery, Richard Burton and Lawrence Olivier. Michael Fassbender reprises the role of Macbeth in this 2015 production.

Perhaps the only people in the world who do not have a sense of guilt are the psychopath. Otherwise, most of us are drilled upon us to build a wall of guilt within us that sometimes makes us lose our balance. The guilt that we are made to feel eventually eats us up. Despite the urge to survive and need to outdo and overrun others to succeed is there, most of our upbringing makes it mandatory for us to fell guilty. Sometimes, we dig our own graves, and our actions themselves push us in. 

The evil that lurks that compels us are not necessarily imbibed within us. They sometimes come to us by association. Despite the claim of many major religions of the world, the perception that one about them is one of misogynistic. The fairer sex is always portrayed as conniving or at least appear to think by emotion rather than by volition. They are also painted to act partial, incapable of meting justice.

Victorious soldiers Macbeth and Banquo return home after defeating Nordic soldiers. In the twilight of confusion, three witches with a child and an infant appear before them. They prophesied that Macbeth would be Thador of Cawdor and future King while Banquo would be the father of Kings. They passed it off with giving much attention until he receives news that he indeed had been appointed as the new Thador after the previous one was executed for treason. Macbeth narrates the prophecy to his wife. 

When King Duncan decides to visit Macbeth, Lady Macbeth instigates her husband to grab his chance for the throne. Macbeth kills the King. The guilt of the killing and subsequent crimes drives Macbeth to paranoia. Lady Macbeth, upon seeing her husband's brutality in burning women and children at the stake drove her to suicide.

Sure enough, the predictions of witches do come true when Macbeth, who thought, had the invincibility of having the boon of not being killed by a "no man born of woman" is killed by Macduff. Macduff was probably delivered by Caesarean Section (from his mother's womb / untimely ripp'd).

She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
— To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing.

— Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 5, lines 17-28)