Malayankunju movie review: Caste in the time of natural calamities and Fahadh Faasil

Language: Malayalam Anil Kumar a.k.a. Anikuttan is a casteist jerk. The early minutes of Malayankunju could deceive a viewer into assuming that Anikuttan is just an eccentric nutcase or – if you take a kind view of him – a loner. However, the narrative incrementally reveals that his bizarre behaviour is rooted in reasons far deeper than routine anti-social qualities. Anikuttan is seething with caste prejudice and, partly due to personal factors that will not be revealed in this review, a sense of victimhood common to dominant communities wherever and whenever their dominance is challenged even marginally. The saga unfolds against the backdrop of warnings of an impending natural calamity in the mountain village in Kerala where the central character lives. Anikuttan is a technician who repairs electronic goods, and works out of the home he shares with his mother. He is a petulant man. His temperament is exemplified by his attitude towards his neighbours who he harasses when their baby’s crying drives him up the wall. What a low-life, did you say? Actually, he is capable of going even lower than that. While Anikuttan’s family and community display high tolerance levels for his obnoxiousness, Nature is less lenient. If there’s one thing climate change and the ongoing pandemic should have taught us, it is that the Earth’s patience with humankind is running out. In Malayankunju, Anikuttan is the ultimate personification of our spoilt, brattish species. The intertwining of a bigot’s rage and Nature’s fury defines this film. Who is the actual victim here? On the one hand are the imagined grievances of an oppressor against the very people he oppresses. On the other hand is the justified anger of a genuinely oppressed, exploited planet.

Directed by debutant Sajimon Prabhakar, Malayankunju is written by Mahesh Narayanan , veteran editor turned director of the critically acclaimed blockbusters _Take Off_ , _C U Soon_ and _Malik_ . Mahesh is also Malayankunju’s cinematographer. His long-time collaborator Fahadh Faasil, leading light of the new Malayalam New Wave , plays Anikuttan. The film is produced by the legendary Fazil, who is Fahadh ’s father. Malayankunju marks A.R. Rahman ’s return to Malayalam cinema after a prolonged gap. His music for this film is pleasant, but not outstanding. Though Malayankunju’s assessment of caste bias and its upper-caste protagonist is uneven, certain aspects of the film merit unequivocal praise. Mahesh’s screenplay thoughtfully and intelligently handles the run-up to establishing Anikuttan as a caste chauvinist, along the way quietly observing the way of life of the people in this region. Anikuttan can be nasty, but he is not caricatured as a villain. This makes him a man not easy to dislike, as a result of which, our response to him depends on our own predispositions in the matter of caste. The trailer has already revealed that at one point Anikuttan is buried underground, yet the rhythm of the narrative until then is such that when disaster finally strikes, it comes as a shock and surprise. This achievement is a testament to Sajimon’s directorial skills.

Anikuttan is beautifully acted with restraint by Fahadh, who embodies his character’s constant internal unrest and occasional weirdness without the effort showing. Through scenes in which Anikuttan is stuck in a flooding tunnel, where a lesser artiste might have been overshadowed by the spectacle, he ensures that his character’s trauma dominates the situation. This is just Fahadh being Fahadh, determined as always to stretch himself. Most of the remaining players in this story are not written as expansively as Anikuttan. This is a limitation of the screenplay, but the actors playing them – some of them reputed stars – make each role memorable all the same. Anikuttan’s mother is the only one given a well-defined shape, form and substance by the writer within the screen time accorded to her. Actor Jaya Kurup sustains a tricky balance between the opposing pulls and pushes of maternal love vs her exasperation with her son, her worries for him vs her affection for those he roundly rejects. Malayankunju trips up in its representation of caste though with the exploration of Anikuttan’s relationships with his sister (Rajisha Vijayan) and father (Jaffer Idukki). Unlike Ratheena’s outstanding _Puzhu_ which made no excuses for its prejudiced protagonist played by the great Mammootty , Malayankunju gives Anikuttan an out. If a personal ordeal causes you to turn against a community, then it does not mean – as people tend to say, while whitewashing fundamentalism in the real world – that “he’s not really such a bad guy, he’s not actually casteist/communal/racist/homophobic/misogynistic/etc”. It simply means he always was; the ordeal stirred his confirmation bias and caused him to reveal his true colours. Malayankunju’s position in this matter is not spelt out in black and white, it is implied. I could also not help feeling that redemption comes too easy for Anikuttan. This is not to suggest that life always punishes caste-mongers off-screen. Obviously not. But throughout this film, individuals with genuine grievances against Anikuttan seem excessively anxious for his goodwill, and forgive him more easily than seems realistic. If they were all dependents or his closest blood relatives, it might have been understandable and believable, but they are not. (Minor spoiler ahead) Interestingly, the cries of a baby that once infuriated Anikuttan because of his othering mindset end up becoming his motivation to stay alive, his compass during a catastrophe, his lighthouse in the dark. Symbolically, this is a glorious overturning of the saviour complex that often infects cinema about equations between subjugated communities and those who historically subjugated them and/or still do. There is a saviour in this film, but not of the sort that we are accustomed to. (Spoiler alert ends) On the technical front, Malayankunju is exceptional. It’s astonishing how much the Malayalam film industry pulls off with the minuscule budgets on which most of its films are made. Mahesh Narayanan’s camerawork in outdoor scenes is as exquisite as one has come to expect from Malayalam cinema at large, but where Malayankunju distinguishes itself is in his shooting of the underground scenes, the production design (Jothish Shankar), editing (Arju Benn) and sound (Vishnu Govind, Sree Sankar) in that long passage. Each plays its part in enveloping Anikuttan in a womb-like space from where he must emerge into rebirth. Malayankunju runs for a crisp, economical 114 minutes. The portrayal of casteism in this survival thriller is equal parts remarkable and debatable. That the film is a conversation starter and worthy of debate is beyond question though. Rating: 3.25 (out of 5 stars)

This review was first published when Malayankunju was released in theatres in July 2022. The film is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video. 

Anna M.M. Vetticad is an award-winning journalist and author of The Adventures of an Intrepid Film Critic. She specialises in the intersection of cinema with feminist and other socio-political concerns. Twitter: @annavetticad, Instagram: @annammvetticad, Facebook: AnnaMMVetticadOfficial Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.