Ariyippu aka Declaration [dir. Mahesh Narayanan]

The opening scenes of Ariyippu (Declaration) convey both its setting and its rhythm. Inside a factory for making surgical gloves, the machinery rattles and hums as a row of mannequin hands, naked or gloved, rotate while ferried on a conveyor. Sometimes they seem to point and sometimes they seem to be held out in desperate supplication. Maker Mahesh Narayanan is primarily an editor - one of the best in  modern Malayalam cinema - and in an un-showy way, the splicing of the visuals of this grim industrial reality generates a kind of beauty, a kind of poetry.

Narayanan's C U Soon (2020) was shot during the Covid-19 lockdown situation in India. Ariyippu went into production towards the end of 2021 after the lockdown was withdrawn, but the narrative is set in a time when the country was still under active curfew. Both the structure and the visual aesthetic of the film draw from this traumatic situation. Malayali couple Hareesh (Kunchako Boban) and Reshmi (Divya Prabha) work at the glove-making unit situated in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. In a time when most other businesses are shuttered, this plant struggles to meet demand. The working hours are hard and long, and the factory has strict rules: Reshmi is ticked off for wearing a (wedding) ring in the glove testing department, while Hareesh must deal with an increased burden of loading goods amidst a worker shortage. Our couple are far from home and, apart from the companionship of some fellow migrant workers, isolated in a cultural milieu that is both foreign and apathetic to their needs. The lockdown protocol of masks and social distancing only adds to their alienation.

They are looking to make the jump to another country where their skillset can earn them a better living. It is in this regard that at the beginning of the film Hareesh films footage of Reshmi working at her station. This is of course forbidden in the rules; employees are not normally permitted even to carry phones onto the floor. With a promise to not leak it elsewhere, he hands the footage to the agent paid to arrange for their migration and employment abroad. Naturally, it does leak, finding its way into the workforce Whatsapp group. Worse, it is appended with footage of a woman in face mask performing a sexual service in the premises.

The resulting scandal produces different reactions in the couple. A distraught Reshmi wants to quit and head homewards to Kerala. Hareesh insists on taking the matter to the police. But there again, it is Reshmi who must bear the brunt of an investigation that only embarrasses her further. In the meanwhile, Hareesh starts to have his doubts about the masked woman. Could it be Reshmi? There is also a pivotal sub-plot concerning malpractice and violation of standards in the company, and both of them get caught up in this by different routes.

The primary focus of Ariyippu is in the relationship of the lead couple. When Hareesh insists on proving Reshmi's innocence in the MMS scandal through a police investigation, he initially appears a loyal husband  striving to restore his wife's honor, while she is full of trepidation. But later we see Hareesh closely examining the added footage, trying to make out if the woman is Reshmi or someone else. His 'bravery' in pursuing the investigation can then be interpreted as not purely an expression of his  trust in his wife but of a male ego bruised by the possibility of his wife straying. This is underlined in the scene where he forces himself upon Reshmi in their cramped bedroom even as a friend staying over to comfort her is sleeping beside. His temper issues, signaled early in the film when he has an altercation with a driver that refuses to help with the loading, lead to bigger problems afterwards.

Reshmi's actions can be similarly re-evaluated. She is scared and unwilling to file a complaint because she knows the process will only add to her hurt and humiliation without really giving her justice. She is proven right, when after sending her for a medical exam (What for, exactly? She is a married woman and the MMS shows a consensual act), the police officer tells them to reach an 'understanding' with the agent regarding the leaked footage. Later, her own husband questions her movements for that day. It is when the actual mystery of the footage is revealed that she decides 'Enough is Enough', and stands up backs against wall to lodge her protest against the systemic patriarchal and class-based abuse that is abetted by even the so-called decent men in the name of maintaining respectability and status quo. The tone is not shrill here. Reshmi does not become a torch-bearing avenger, and there is no raucous showdown. But in following the dictates of her own mind, she stands up for herself and for the other women destroyed or suppressed by that toxic hierarchy.

In this unvarnished yet sensitive slice of life movie experience, I am reminded of the films of Ivan Ayr (Soni, Meel Patthar). Narayanan with his creative collaborators - DoP Sanu John Varghese, co-editor Rahul Radhakrishnan, background score composer Sushin Shyam - gives a unified vision wholly in service of the story and characters. Even the language of the film, a fluid mixture of Malayalam, Hindi and Tamil - is a wonderful reflection of its cosmopolitan setting. As Hareesh, Kunchako Boban (who also co-produced) gives another performance that heralds him as the actor to watch for. In another era, he might have been content to get by on innate charm, but his filmography of the last few years shows someone clearly willing to take creative risks. Hareesh is a gray-shaded character, and neither the writing nor Boban's performance try to sugar-coat it in any way. Divya Prabha, whom I have only seen before in Malik, brilliantly owns Reshmi's character. You can feel her trepidation and preference to conform, gradually give way to anger when her husband suspects her of infidelity and later white-hot fury when she realizes how the entire ecosystem colludes to suppress the voice of victims, just to keep the wheels moving and to retain the prestige of the privileged. Even in the absence of exaggerated verbal fireworks, the audience can empathize with her indignation, which is also the film's anger.

The Banshees of Inisherin [dir. Martin McDonagh]

On a remote island off the Irish coast where the church and the local pub are the sole places of gathering and news travels primarily by way of mouth, the life of simple farmer Pádraic / Patrick (Colin Farrell) is upended when his hitherto constant pub-mate Colm (Brendan Gleeson) tells Farrell in no uncertain terms that he does not wish his fraternity anymore. This is not on account of any quarrel between the men, nay; Basically the older Colm has decided to spend his remaining years making something of his life in creative pursuit, and the company of 'dull' Patrick would only be a waste of precious time.

For good reason, Patrick does not take this well. The only other resorts he has for company are his sister Siobhan (Kerry Condon), his pet miniature donkey Jenny, and occasionally, the village idiot Dominic (Barry Keoghan). Patrick feels betrayed and confused. How could his best friend cut him off that way? But his attempts to break through Colm's hostility are met with even more extreme retaliation, when Colm - a hobbyist fiddler - threatens to cut off one of his (own) fingers for each time Patrick approaches him. As we soon see, it is not an empty threat. The bleak insular nature of the island community creates a pressure-cooker atmosphere, and Patrick's desperation and gullibility to suggestion makes him do the very things that further escalate the situation.

Depending on your viewpoint, The Banshees of Inisherin is either a very bleak comedy or a very funny tragedy. To the credit of writer-director Martin McDonagh, it never stumbles in that ambivalent tone. I admit, I used to regard Colin Farrell as something of a jerk - I could not sit through more than 20 min of In Bruges, and Hollywood's attempts to make an action movie star of him didn't help. But the work he did with Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos made me sit up to the actor, and he proved a real chameleon with his take on the Penguin's character in The Batman. Here he disappears into the simpleton role, exuding a child-like petulance when his friend refuses to acknowledge him anymore, which eventually turns into a dangerous rage.

Brendan Gleeson is equally effective as the man that does not hate Farrell, but cannot stand the idea of wasting any more of life in his company. And fantastic support is provided by Condon and Keoghan (who has worked with Farrell before). The remote Irish isles may be dreary to spend a lifetime in, but they provide a gorgeous untamed backdrop against which the drama is played out. In all, The Banshees of Inisherin is an engrossing feature spun off a simple but effective idea. The numerous awards for which it has been nominated are certainly well-earned.

 

Farzi [Raj & DK]

Couple nights back I finished with the first season of Farzi, the OTT-series on Amazon Prime. In this crime drama, talented artist Sandeep/Sunny (Shahid Kapur) turns small-time counterfeiter, and then gets involved with high-level players. On the flip side, a job-obsessed but deeply flawed and manipulative cop Michael (Vijay Sethupati) heads a special task force (called CCFART, for the lulz, obviously) to bust the fake notes business in the country. Passionate RBI employee Megha (Raashi Khanna) joins this team, and has run-ins with the counterfeiter. On these three linchpins hangs a narrative with multiple turns and an end-of-season showdown.

I had significant expectations from Farzi, as it came from the stable of Raj & DK, the makers of the Family Man series as well as entertaining movies like 99, Shor in the City, A Gentleman etc (For now let's ignore Go Goa Gone and Happy Ending). But the first episode had me seriously wondering if the burden of simultaneously taking on multiple series had severely stretched out the creative juices of these guys. What I like most about their work - across film and OTT - is their ability to mine individual personality quirks and regional subtleties that make their character writing memorable. In contrast, the bulk of Ep 1 was alarmingly generic and lacklustre. Thankfully, the further episodes picked up the slack, and while the best parts of Family Man are superior to anything we see here, this is still a well-made piece of entertainment.

The casting is terrific across the board. Vijay Sethupati in his Hindi debut gives non-Tamilians a taste of his trademark irreverent style - his peppery exchanges with Zakir Hussain's minister character are a joy to behold. And Michael is suited to the actor's ability to deliver layered portrayals. Michael loves his job, but it's more an ego trip for him than the selfless "desh-seva" mantra that Family Man's good guys had. He is also fairly flexible in his principles, using seized fake notes to buy his son a fancy phone or emotionally manipulating his wife to hold off the impending divorce. Like they did for Priyamani and Samantha in Family Man, Raj & DK continue their mission of giving meaningful parts to Telugu movie 'import glamdolls' - this time it's Raashi Khanna and Regina Cassandra, as the counterfeit-hunting RBI employee and Sethupati's estranged spouse respectively. The talented but often typecast Kay Kay Menon is in cracking form as mid-level fake currency operator Mansoor Dalaal - in both the writing and his performance, the character gets a delightful amount of nuance that separates him from the stereotype gangster/bhai.

In comparison to the more colorful cast members Shahid Kapur's 'Artist' is very tamped down. But this is deliberate - Like the protagonist of Johnny Gaddaar, his character is supposed to be one that flies under everyone's radar. He succeeds when underestimated. But there is also the flip side - he is a cocky fool that gets into shitholes by aggrandizing himself as a playah when he is really a 'lukkhaa' surviving by the seat of his pants with no real strategy. The actor bravely embraces the essential amorality of Sunny and delivers exactly what is needed.

Compared to Family Man's several audacious action sequences peppered through the series, this one mainly comes alive in the chase sequence amidst Mumbai traffic in the last episode (there is a fair amount of action before, but that's more competent than exhilarating). But thankfully, unlike FM S01's brutally abrupt ending, this one has a reasonably satisfying series arc while setting up hooks for the next season. I look forward to them upping the ante.