Jallikattu, Malayalam Film Picked To Contest For Oscar Awards, Brings Back Memories Of Raj Kapoor’s Jagte Raho

Lijo Jose Pellissery, one of the most-promising Indian filmmakers, is currently hogging national limelight after his 2019 Malayalam film Jallikattu was nominated to compete for Oscar awards from India.

Pellissery, who made his debut with a crime thriller Nayakan in 2010, has a huge fan following for the way he presents his movies and one of India’s popular film directors Mani Ratnam says he himself is a huge fan of the Malayalam movie-maker.

Movies such as Amen, Angamaly Diaries and Ea.Ma.Yu have won critics’ plaudits for Pellissery and these bear testimony to how he can handle various issues in a telling manner.

For example, Angamaly Diaries exposes the underbelly of Kerala’s underworld as also the land mafia with the hero being an incidental victim. Though Ea.Ma.Yu is a slow satire movie, it deals with the death of a person and the travails his family undergoes to conduct his funeral amidst heavy downpour.

Compared to these, Jallikattu is a totally different one that brings to the fore the dark side of humans, how avaricious and brutal they can be. It also ridicules politics, albeit softly.

Jallikattu has nothing to do with the bullfights conducted during Pongal festivity in Tamil Nadu. This one is all about chasing a buffalo (male) that escapes from its butcher just about when it is to be cut for beef.

The story is about how a buffalo escapes moments before it can be butchered by Kalan Varkey and begins its destructive run. As the buffalo runs wild, damaging houses, shops, plants and trees on its path, the whole village decides to chase it so that each one can get a piece of its flesh free.

Varkey would not want that but he is rendered helpless as the buffalo continues its triumphant run, eluding everyone even after it falls into a well and gets trapped.

The animal finally meets its end, unable to run further carrying injuries, but the end is one where the director shows humans as a mound of filth.

In a way, Pellissery delivers "poetic justice" as one after the other those trying to catch the buffalo or kill it personally meet their end.

The director exposes male chauvinism too as the camera pans through some of the families during the buffalo’s run like a policeman beating up his wife or the butcher’s sister being ridiculed for her previous affair.

Pelissery also brings alive, filming in picturesque central Kerala region, how a buffalo can wreak havoc when it is on a destructive run. It is not an easy task to control such an animal.

This writer has witnessed such a buffalo that usually ran amok from a nearby Indian Air Force (IAF) camp Avadi during his childhood and how at least half a dozen service personnel will chase to tame it.

The very run of such a buffalo can be nerve-wracking and we all would run and lock ourselves in our homes.

On the other hand, Jallikattu brings to fore memories of Raj Kapoor’s 1956 Hindi classic Jagte Raho.

In Jallikattu, the shadiness is exposed by the buffalo running for its life throughout the night.

In Jagate Raho, the negativity comes to light when a mob goes chasing a non-existent thief even as Raj Kapoor, an innocent villager, tries to escape from being mistaken.

If Kapoor evoked humour in the Hindi movie turning upside a waste bin and walking with an inebriated person, Pellissery evokes humour when a person asks for tea from a shop damaged by the running buffalo. The teashop owner’s response is both humorous and thought-provoking.

The buffalo’s run in the wild exposes one human after another. From the personal rivalry between Antony and Kuttachan for the hand of Varkey’s sister to the sub-inspector, who tries to shut up his complaining wife, all come to the fore during the chase.

Antony gets exposed when he misbehaves with her, while Kuttachan, too, before he falls foul of the law for sandalwood smuggling.

Politicians, too, are exposed during the buffalo’s attempt to escape.

The director also highlights the love of food among the common man in central Kerala, particularly beef and coconut milk curry.

Similarly, as Kapoor escapes from the mob to save himself hiding in one or the other flat in the huge apartment, there are many, including politicians and big men in the society, who are exposed.

If Nargis was a whiff of fresh air appearing in the last scene watering plants, Santhy Balachandran as Varkey’s sister Sophie brings some freshness to the screen.

Probably, Chemban Vinod Jose’s character as Varkey reminds us of the innocent Kapoor. Varkey loses his buffalo while he tries to butcher and ends up helpless as the mob takes over.

In Jagte Raho, Kapoor is helpless trying to get drinking water and he runs for cover in fear when the mob goes in search of the non-existent thief.

There is a difference, though, in how both movies end. The Hindi movie ends with Raj Kapoor walking towards dawn but the Malayalam movie shows a mound of filthy humans as dawn appears near.

No doubt, Jallikattu could be India’s best bet for the Oscars since it is a dark tale of humans and their greed. The movie has won rave reviews at a few international film festivals.

Jallikattu is also a reminder of Pellissery’s capabilities, depth, and talent and Indian cinema needs to tap them.