One man's meat is ...

Angamaly Diaries (Malayalam, 2017)
Director: Lijo Jose Pellissery

Most people, I included, end up viewing this movie after watching Jallikatu. The director of the film belongs to the new generation of directors who are bold enough to challenge the traditional way of story-telling and are daring to show their visualisation of reality boldly. Lijo Jose Pellissery is known for his unconventional approach in directing, making films that are characterised by nonlinear storylines, the aestheticisation of violence, extended scenes of dialogue and very long takes. The other peculiar thing about this film is that the filmmakers decided to feature 86 debutants. Again like Jallikatu, there is so much chaos, so much activity, sometimes too much, but the story progresses seamlessly. 

We all have seen many violent Indian movies which glorify violence, deify anti-heroes and depict an alternative universe where a lone downtrodden underdog brings down the whole corrupt system. Somehow, here the film depicts violence as a primal thing which is part and parcel of human living. The frequent screenshots of lumpy cut meat, slicing of pork and sizzling beef and pork curry may not be a vegetarian's idea of a wholesome meal. Still, the district of Angamaly in Kerala carries the enviable reputation of coming up with the most delicious of non-vegetarian meals. Their pork cuisines are something to die for, it seems. The past history that links them to Portuguese invasion, placement of the first Portuguese bishop in India, being the administrative headquarters of Syrian Christians and five centuries of tradition make them a strategic location to churn out a potpourri of European cookings flavoured with local ingredients. They are champions in tossing out mouthwatering dishes with yam, mango, jackfruit and beef. There is hardly any choice for vegetarians, Even their vegetables are cooked with meat as an addendum.

Pork is the king of Angamaly's cuisine. Another speciality
is meat cooked with yam and jackfruit seed.
Credit: onmanorama.com

The eminent 8th-century philosopher Adi Sankaracharya who singlehandedly consolidated the doctrine of Advaita Vedanta and unified thoughts in Hinduism is said to have been born nearby, in Kalady. Adi Sankaracharya is said to have travelled to all four corners of India and is said to have demarcated and unified all Hindus by engaging them in intellectual discourses. He is said to have propagated the idea that Atman, our inner self, is no different from Brahman, the Universal Consciousness. The world is, therefore, just an illusion. This is the basis of the Advaita School of Hinduism.

The movie is about a group of friends who decide to start a pork-selling business. The crux of the film is about the clash they have with a rival gang in having sole control of pork sales in that area. Along the way, we are feasted with extremely long shots as we follow the characters go about doing their daily duties of slaughtering pigs and slashing their enemies. The picturesque background and the excellent editing makes it a pleasure to watch despite the seemingly brutal theme.

Maybe the director is being cheeky here. Despite the sensitivities surrounding the different cultures in Kerala, he keeps on showing people mugshots of raw pork and beef repeatedly. As if to mock, the film ends with the call of azan as the protagonists relocate himself in Dubai!

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Even a bed has a stand, a nightstand!

A friend sent me a Youtube presentation outlining the nitty-gritty details of India's new Farm Bill 2020. This news seems to be the flavour of the month that hit most portals dealing with news from India. Pictures of Sikh farmers in a protest demanding justice is making its appearance in most channels. Wanting to research more into this, in an investigative manner, I approached a few of my many friends about it. Everything has to be taken in context, I finally understand.

The first person I interviewed said that he has no opinions as he is a Malaysian, and things that happen in India does not bother him. His ancestors left Punjab because the state could not provide; hence, he has no love lost. 

Along the way, I find that the media, which is highly influenced by the West, had a lot of negativities to say about India's 'bad' way of handling the situation. One of the darlings of the liberal society, President Justin Trudeau had a lashing towards India's 'unsympathetic' stance towards people.

Next, an economical èmigrè of Indian stock to Canada had this say. Her Prime Minister was merely echoing the world's sentiments. Only he had the fortitude to verbalise what everyone wanted to say but dare not. My opinion, however, is that she must be seen appeasing her Newfoundland, her masters and not appear showing allegiance to her Bharat Mata.

My research has shown me this. The world is a stage and what is fed to us in the media is a narrative with hidden motives acted by a sleight of hand to fulfil specific agendas. There are more than meets the eye.

In essence, the Bill tries to curb two taunting issues. Firstly, the opening of the market to the farmers and abolition of middlemen. With the change, a farmer can trade his produce with any buyer in any state with the market forces determining its price, not middlemen. For this, the substantial subsidies that the Government is forking out are abolished.

The subsidy issue is harped by the Opposition and the breaking India force to vilify Modi. They instigate the farmers to rise to oppose the claimed oppression. Here, the only who tend to lose are the middlemen. After an initial rise in the price of a commodity, the cost of goods would be stabilised by the market forces, according to analysts. The Government asserts that they are not washing their hands of the farmers' and consumers' affairs. They would periodically come in, in times of crisis, to control prices.

The hypocrisy of the Western powers is in display here. At WTO conferences, they chide India for producing cheap produce, under-cutting other producers and reducing their competitiveness. They attribute this to India's generous subsidy to farmers. The support was introduced in the first place for food security after the many famines that it had experienced, including the wheat shortage in the 70s. But, when the support is abolished, they cry foul! The Canadian Prime Minister's rant is political. It is to appease his vote bank; not to mete justice.

One interviewee told me that knowing things like these, something that would not change his day to day, as a means to stimulate his grey cells. He knows what he thinks is insignificant in the void of the Universe. Still, he has a right to have an opinion, rightly or wrongly. Even a bed has a stand, a nightstand. And a pen and an umbrella too.

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Still searching?

Unsolved Mysteries (Documentary, Season 15; 2020)

Netflix (12 episodes)

People always pacify the grieving party to be strong. The truth is out there, and it will eventually surface, they say. That truth will prevail, and the perpetrator will be caught sooner or later. To keep mourning quiet, to give closure, we tell them that justice will be meted eventually; that the long arm of the law will catch up. Nah, these are all stop-gap measures to coo a wailing baby. Some things remain unanswered forever.

The parties featured in this series will be a testimony to that. Many of the tragedies that happened to them occurred long ago, but nothing has come their way to put an end to the many questions that have plagued minds. The family members and friends involved in the few cases depicted in the 12 episodes would probably carry their sorrow to their graves, hoping that they would know everything when they reach the Otherside. Disappointed they would be if there nothing on the other realm- just void, no heaven or hell, just nothing!

The 'Unsolved Mysteries' documentary series is a long going show that tries to highlight cold cases and paranormal activities that has been around since 1987. This particular offering from Netflix was released in two batches of 6 episodes each in July and October 2020. 

Many unexplained things are found in the first episode 'Mystery on the Rooftop' where a writer is found missing from home and later found dead decomposed in a hotel conference room after jumping or pushed off a building. How he went up on to the roof and where he jumped from and why remains the unanswered questions. The funny thing is that his associate refused to divulge any information and was gone hush with the help of lawyers.

In '13 minutes', a likeable salon owner goes missing, only to be found almost 2 years later. The secret of her disappearance lies in the 13 minutes, where there were no activities on her mobile phone. Her husband, an abusive stepfather to her son is a suspect. Another serial killer admitted to murdering her but it turned out to be a false lead.

One of the most gruesome murders narrated here happened in Nantes, France. It involved a mother, her four children and two dogs of the Dupont de Ligonnès family. The father, Xavier, is the prime suspect and is said to have escaped the country and his whereabouts is unknown. We learn about the French aristocrats here and how some have failed over the years as the country became more socialistic in outlook. The whole episode is in French.

'No ride home' is a reminder that the Western world is no more civilised than the rest of the world. They are equally quick to react to people who look and dress differently from them. Alonzo Brooks, a black boy, fails to return home after a party in the deep white country of Kansas. Police and FBI fail to locate the boy, but his body appeared in plain sight when the family and friends conducted a search party. The whole imbroglio reeked of police cover-up and community concealment of a hate crime. Lynching never stopped; it just continued in other ways.

In 1969, there was an alleged UFO sighting and alien abduction in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. Diehard fans of 'X Files' would be quite familiar with this. Unfortunately, nothing is found online about this incidence. The episode is an account of the narrative of a few who viewed a bright light in the sky. Two of them experienced being beamed up into the skyship. Radio DJs who were working that night admit receiving calls from listeners. These were pushed aside as pranks, and there are no reports of it in the local newspapers as retrieved from archives.

In one twisted episode, 'Missing Witness', a daughter helped her philandering mother to kill her stepfather. When the case somehow ended up in the court, the witness, the daughter, goes missing. Everybody hunch is that the mother made her daughter disappear, but according to her mother, she had found a man and had moved to another state with no forwarding address. The stepfather and the daughter were never found. Hence, there is actually no case to try.

'Washington Inside Murder' tells the case of a powerful man amongst the inner circle of Capital Hill, John Wheeler III, whose body was found in a dumpster in Delaware. With the help of digital tracking of his mobile device and later with the use of CCTV footage around town after he allegedly lost his phone, investigators had a patchy outline of his activities before his death. Afflicted with bipolar disease, his behaviour appeared bizarre. He was involved in many high-level deals. There is a suspicion that he could have been at the wrong end of a deal gone wrong.

'Death in Oslo' has much resemblance to the Isdal Girl, about a girl found in the icy cold mountainous area of Isdalen Valley in Norway in 1970. One glaring similarity between the Isdal Girl and the girl in this episode who apparently shot herself in a suicide bid in an exclusive hotel in Oslo in 1995 is the cutting of labels off her garments. It is said to be the practice of undercover agents to cover their tract. There were no gun residues on her hand and DNA which was extracted years later did not reveal much. 

In 1965, Lester Eubanks, a sexual predator by today's standards, abducted and killed a 14-year-old girl. He confessed to the murder and was sentenced to die by electrocution. His sentence was commuted to life imprisonment after the State of Ohio stopped the death sentence. Eubanks was an apparently reformed prisoner and was recruited in a reform programme. He was tasked to do Christmas shopping with a few other inmates and is on the run since 1973.

Another exciting episode is on the Tsunami that devasted a remote eastern coastal area of Ishinomaki, Japan, in 2011. The tragedy killed over 20,000 people. Following the event, many people there, family members and even taxi drivers started seeing apparitions. Many had nightmares, others saw bizarre creatures in the distant and shadows in the water. To an outsider, the Japanese seem to appear too religious. Their spirituality actually runs deep. Much like Hinduism, the thin veil that separates life and death is pretty flimsy. Life and death is a continuum. People who have said their proper goodbyes before dying or had close relatives who have had a closure to their loss need spiritual guidance to put people at peace. Japanese also underwent the same turmoil during Hiroshima and Nagasaki mishaps.

'Lady in the Lake' tells about a Michigan church-going lady going missing in 2010. Her body was found two months later in Canada. Police classified it as suicide even though there were family members who had a bone to pick with the deceased. The final episode discusses missing children and possibly child abduction rings.

We can wait till the cows come home (and go back again to graze) for the Truth to surface. We can waste our lives cracking our head trying to prove our point. We can make it our life long ambition to right the wrong, or just move on.

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What is a 'normal' family?

 Kumbalangi Nights (Malayalam, 2019)

For the longest time, the idea of a family unit, at least amongst the average middle-class family is that it would comprise a father who would predominantly contribute towards the material needs of the family. A mother would always seem to play second fiddle to the patriarchy but would be a tresure trove of love and affection in abundance. She would oversee the everyday running of the household. On the surface, the mother, the wife, seem to live under the shadow of her husband, dancing to his puppet-strings. In reality, however, she has her own ways of controlling the narratives in her own passive-aggressive way. 

In modern times, family dynamics have evolved. Not only have the extended family concept where relatives live under the same roof is getting rarer, one has to put up with single parents and same-gender parents. The notion of a male-domination in households is viewed upon as male toxicity. 

This movie compares two families, one consisting of four sons growing up all in their own ways, rudderless, with neither a father nor a mother. These boys are actually adults, just doing their own things, without any ideas of their future or working towards any purpose in life. They live day to day drinking and earning only enough to sustain their simple lives. Things change when a woman enters their respective lives. A sense of order seems to trickle in. 

This is compared to another traditional family with a mother, sister, and a wife only to be led by a patriarchal figure who exudes masculine toxicity. There is order. Food is always there. The female figures ensure cleanliness is maintained. The ugly side of this family surfaces when the sister falls head over heels in love with one of the brothers from the other family. He is considered too wayward and unworthy of her and her family.

The rest of the story is about how resolution comes in the form of families dousing the rage of an obviously deranged toxic head of the girl's family. The film tends to illustrate that the traditional family is terrible. Responsibilities must be shared by all members of the family, and no one person should dominate over the other.

The cinematography is awe-inspiring here. The setting of a riverside, boats, lush tropical greenery and simple way of living helps viewers to bury themselves temporarily in a tropical paradise, away from the hassle and bustle of their busy urban modern live. Even life in Eden has its problems that need to be fixed.  

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It takes an animal to bring out the beast in us!

Jallikattu (Malayalam, 2019)

Director: Lijo Jose Pellissery

A simple story of a raging buffalo which escapes the slaughterhouse forms the basis of this film. Many in the village are dependent on the buffalo - for the butcher, it is money that it can fetch; for the rival group, it is free meat for their taking; for gangsters, it is a time to show their machoism; for the father whose daughter is getting engaged, he needs to feed his guests; for the ex-convict, it is time to settle a score with the butcher, and the pastor needs to feed his congregation.

Jallikattu is primarily a Tamil tradition, where brave youngsters in a celebratory mood try to tame a raging bull to clutch on to the bag of coins tied to its horn. Hence the name; Jalli @ Salli meaning coin and kattu is a tie-bag. This practice was started as a form of finding the best bull to improve the stock of cows in ancient times. Unfortunately, over the years, it has become a blood sport of sort. Bulls were drugged, and their eyes were sprinkled with chilly powder to blur their vision and agitate them. That was the reason for its recent ban. The practice was later reinstated. Detractors who opposed the prohibition cited concerted international conspiracy to ruin Tamil Nadu's dairy stock and industry and to bring in European brand of dairy cows.

The moviemakers probably decided to name this movie 'Jallikaatu' anyway because that is how the escape of the buffalo had become - everyone joining in the melee to get their hand on the prized bull.

The exciting thing about this story is that all characters are complex. Everyone comes to the scene carrying with them their baggage. Nothing is white or black. Nobody is either good or bad. There is some kind of flaw in everybody. One thing we notice is that everybody is loud, violent and animal-like, much like the beast they are hunting down. In fact, the buffalo is not posing a danger to any of them. Still, the people in the village are making it the single most important thing in their lives that they can afford to spend a couple of days on nothing but apprehending the animal on the loose.

The policeman in the story also has a back story. He has to do his duties as if he has everything under control. In reality, nothing is under wraps. In his home front, he has had it with his demanding wife who keeps harassing him every minute of the day, even when he is busy carrying out his police work. He thinks he has control at work, stumping his authority behind his uniform. He soon realises that the respect that the police receives is only there when people bow to authority. In a mob situation, there is no law and order, only chaos and exhibition of Man's primal instincts.

There is only chaos throughout the movie. Everybody is shouting, and there is pandemonium so every now and then. But within the chaos, there is order. The people still manage to devise strategies to capture the beast.

Equality, equity vs removing the barrier, but
enjoying the view from where you stand!

As the movie advances and ends, the viewers soon come to the realisation that we, as a species, have not evolved much from our days of cave dwellers and hunter-gatherers. Like primal hunters, we want to keep all our hunt to ourselves. We refuse to share even though we have more than we can chew.

Deservedly, this film is India's nomination to the 2021 Academy Award in the category of feature films. The subtle use of sounds, of a cappella music and the excellent lighting adds on the scare value to the music. The cinematography is mind-blowing, and the setting of props, as well as the angle of photo shots, are groundbreaking. 

There are no heroes here in this film; only villains. And they are the people who are worse than the amok beast that they are hunting down. Inserted between scenes are sarcastic vignettes about life. The law seems to be a farce when it appears to be more protective of animals than people. We need a permit or a court order to shoot down a raging animal even it can potentially kill a human. A pacifist calls for protection of animals, but not when his property is damaged. I guess laws are only for others - 'anywhere but not in my backyard!' 

There is subtle communist bashing too as I can see, as evidenced by the occasional flashing red-hued sickle-bearing flags. The innate greed that lurks within us cannot stomach seeing another prospering without lifting an eyelid. We demand equity only when the hurdles are stacked against us. We do not complain when they are in our favour.

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Opium for the masses

Trance (Malayalam, 2020)

A sucker is born every minute, they say. Probably what they meant was that the rooting reflex was innate in all babies. Stroke the cheek and the baby would automatically turn its head towards the stimulus and initiate a suckling reaction. It also could imply to the many who are suckered up to racketeering and daylight robberies. 

Watching this movie was a sort of a deja vu experience for me. A close relative had discovered Jesus late in life, and she made it her raison d'être to spread His word. And along she went to all four corners of the country praying for the sick and the fallen. She would personally harbour drug addicts and vagabonds in her home to nurse them back to functionality.

I remember her style. To get her congregation interested in her sermon, out of the blue, she would blurt out 'Hallelujah' on top of her lungs to get approval what she was saying. And an often repeated phrase was that Jesus spoke to her in her dreams. How she would in her usual demonstrative form place her hand on the vertex of her client to pray desperately to chase off the devil that plagued them. She looked sincere and was utterly convinced that she was doing something good. At least it kept her sane.

Well, that is not what this film is trying to highlight. There are people out there who target people's weakness and make a living out cheating desperate people blind. Man created religion to give them a tuft of hope in facing day to day uncertainties of life. Religion is supposed to give them sanity when the storm on Earth becomes too overwhelming. It gives them the assurance that their actions of maintaining peace and order will be rewarded, in this life or after. It absorbs the guilt of the mistakes that he commits at the moment of inebriation. There is a fine line between faith giving peace of mind and it being the cause of lunacy. Extremism negates other points of views. There is a loss of mindfulness and the compulsion to cut off other people beliefs. The guilt of not sticking to the true tenets of religion can turn one into a raving lunatic.

It is beyond comprehension how some people are often lulled into submission by putting the fear of God. The world becomes too complicated for some to strive a living that they get suckered into the promise of divinity in negating all the miseries. And they fall prey to their myths. Rather than resorting to critical thinking, they are deluded with blind faith.

This Malayalam movie tells a tale, perhaps not unreal, of a motivational speaker, mired with a sad family history filled with mental illness and a recent suicide of his brother. He is pulled in by a group of businessmen who use religion to dupe the unsuspecting public into evangelical Christianity and faith healing. Viju Prasad is picked up by a talent corp to be given an intensive course on the Bible and is soon christened Pastor Joshua Carlton (JC, referring to Jesus Christ, of course). JC starts doing 'staged' healing that he himself begins to think that he may indeed have healing powers. His bosses are hot under the collar as JC behaves as if he is the brain behind the whole facade.

This film may be the anthesis of 'Mookuthi Amman'. If Mookuthi Amman pokes fun at Hindu godmen, 'Trance' hits up at the bogus media-savvy megalomaniac pastors who victimise desperate patients who are wit's end to find a cure for their advanced maladies. Fahadh Faasil gives a sterling performance as a doting elder brother and a confused healer who is himself at the brink of a mental breakdown. 

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After all these years...

Stories by Rabindranath Tagore

Netflix (26 episodes; 2015)

Even though Tagore wrote these stories more than a hundred years ago, it remains fresh and relevant to today. 

Rabindranath lived at a time when India, as well as the rest of the world, was rapidly changing. His motherland, after missing the bus of the Industrial Revolution, thanks to the British East India Company and the British Empire, was doing catch up. Starting with the First Indian Rebellion @ Sepoy Mutiny in 1857, India had awoken. After being plundered by foreign forces repeatedly, it tried to make social and political changes. Many leaders emerged. Some approached them through political means, others through armed hostility and yet some via passive aggression. Tagore infiltrated the minds with his literary work.

This collection of twenty stories in twenty-six episodes cover a range of issues. The stories were authored by Tagore between 1890 and 1941, just before his death. They talk about the mistreatment of young widows, the evil dowry system, caste system, freedom in terms of Independence and free from incumbrances of life and society. Woman empowerment is a recurring theme, and his characters are mostly strong female characters.


Tagore's seminal novel ' Choker Bali' (Dust in the Eye) starts the series. A young widow tries to seduce the man who turned down her marriage as a revenge to her widowhood and the restrictions imposed on her by society. Atithi (Guest) is about a runaway boy who feels trapped, growing up in a restrictive home environment. He grows up in a zamindar's house only to run away again when marriage is proposed upon him with the landlord's daughter. There are just too much to learn from the world than to be exclusively tied down in one place.

It is a joy to see how each story segues into another. There is usually a common place where the path of the characters of one story meet with another, and the camera leads on to the next one.

'Maanbhajan' (Fury Appeased) is about another woman empowerment story. Left by her husband for an actress, the wife, fascinated by the theatre, becomes a famous actress herself in a poetic 'tit-for-tat' move. 

The series also includes a light comedy (Detective and Dhai Aakhar Prem Ka), a delve into the paranormal (Kankal and Monihara), a retelling of Satyajit Ray's 'Charulata' (Nastarinh), loneliness (Waaris), inclusiveness (Kabuliwalla), familial sacrifice (Shasthi), servile loyalty (Wafadaar), on domineering familial hierarchy (Aparchita and Mrinal ki Chitti) and the futility of vengeance (Dalia).

Rabindranath Tagore differed with some of the views held by Gandhi. Even though both fought for freedom, Tagore also wanted escapism from the clutches of unreasonable traditional beliefs. He also had the impression that we should embrace modernity Interestingly, Gandhi, who opposed the introduction of railways into India, used the Indian trains to disseminate all his ideologies to the masses. Both of them also had contrary outlooks of sex and relationships. Whilst Gandhi experimented with sexual abstinence, Tagore was freewriting about domestic issues and intrafamilial problems.

The series was a feast for the eyes. Kudos for the cinematography for bringing out the best in the outdoor camerawork can do. Viewers are transported back to the 1920s pre-Independent pre-Partition Bengal, complete with the serene and tranquil greenery, the props and costumes that befit the era. It is a joy to view the old Victorian-styled buildings and bulky antique furniture. It is highly recommended.

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