Jallaikattu (2019) Movie Review | Lijo Jose Pellisery

Jallikattu - Chasing the Unicorn called 'masculinity' which is disguised as a wild Buffalo:

(Spoiler alert)

"Art should disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed" ~ Cesar A. Cruz

LijoJosePellisery's new film 'Jallikattu' could be regarded as an allegory to the above quote, both literally and figuratively. The writing is clever in the sense that this is implicit. I couldn't resist the recent Asuran hangover while watching it, in the sense that both films had the main plot entity constantly entwined with the narrative. (Seruppu in the case of Asuran and Nature in the case of Jallikattu) It's almost like nature plays the protagonist and we regularly get to see 'her' in the most laid back and calm manner.

On the onset, it is a film masked as a thriller involving lot of chaos and action with a clock ticking, but as the layers peel off, it is such a masterfully written satire on masculinity. Titling the film with the name of the sport that's widely regarded as a mean and measure of being an alpha male itself works on so many levels. And the main plot element - the wild Buffalo is actually picturised in a mythical manner. It's almost like them 'men' are chasing an Unicorn called 'masculinity' which is disguised as a wild Buffalo. The never ending quest and thirst for alpha-masculinity is shown throughout and almost every male character has this as the ultimate goal. The one single woman character of importance in the film also happens to remind and convey this goal of men. Couldn't help but get reminded of the character named 'Subbu' from Thiagarajan Kumararaja's Aaranya Kaandam (2011) and that last dialogue from that film - "The best part about being a woman is that it's a man's world".

I can safely say that for me, the year 2019 belongs to Malayalam cinema. And they've almost been dealing with masculinity continuously. Kumbalangi nights, Ishq, Uyare and now we have Jallikattu that has taken it to the next level.

"Madness is a lot like gravity. All it needs is a little push" ~ The Joker | The Dark Knight | 2008

And also this favourite quote of mine struck me in odd manner during Jallikattu. We're dealing with something that could be termed as 'Man Vs Nature'. Nature's force of gravity is the weakest of all known forces and so is the perception of nature's possibilities and prowess. When the balance between us and nature gets offset, in the end it is the latter that would eventually end up victorious in the process of balancing it out. And this couldn't have been conveyed better than the brilliantly staged and shot climax of the film. Politically, the film also could be an important statement in today's times where we're dealing with an important global problem called climate change.

The film's plot and the tension is slowly built like a castle built using a deck of playing cards, only to get crumbled in the end. Visually the climax couldn't have done more justice to this. Gireesh Gangadharan's work in this film has to be the most audacious ones of late. Personally, I would rate the cinematography on par with that of Mani Ratnam's Raavanan.

The key actors and the innumerable number of people who come as the people of the village act and do things in unison. Nothing feels choreographed and the chaos is very organic. The film belongs to the editor, the sound designer and the composer who have almost worked as a single technician. Their works are seamlessly synced and never gets off place. Prasanth Pillai's work for this film could be regarded as one of the finest film scores in India. His understanding of the need of the story and the creative decision to go full acapella is beyond brilliance. This is film composing at its finest!