Churuli: When gibberish pretends to have meaning
Published : Feb 13, 2021, 9:28 pm IST
Updated : Feb 13, 2021, 9:28 pm IST
The eagle eye view injects mystery and suspense to the film
Churuli movie poster Rating:
The year 2021 hasn t begun well for Malayalam film director Lijo Jose Pellissery. First, his film
Jallikattu, India s entry to the Oscars, didn t impress the Academy judges, and now the director, who has acquired a cult following, seems to have disappointed his devoted fans with his latest film,
Churuli, which premiered at the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) on Thursday.
There was palpable enthusiasm in the lead up to the film s show at Thiruvananthapuram s Kairali theatre, causing much anxiety to IFFK organisers who are determined to maintain social distancing in theatres. But, daunted by the long queues of young boys and girls as well as unannounced guests of the state government, some adjustments had to be made in the cinema
Rasa means juice, flavour or essence, and – to put it in the simplest terms possible –
Navarasa in the Indian arts refers to the nine (
nava) emotional states as captured by a work of art, and as manifested in the audience’s experience of and response to that work.
This gigantic project that the multiple-award-winning filmmaker kicked off in 2000 can best be described then as an anthology on the emotions at play in human society.
The title of the latest addition to this collection is not to be taken literally though.
Hasyam has been described by the director as a black comedy, but its most striking aspect is its success in capturing the banality of callousness in a morbid profession (hat tip: Hannah Arendt) through the lightness of being in the life of a cadaver agent.
The cover of a book on Jean Luc Godard by G.P. Ramachandran
Film critic G.P. Ramachandran s book covers the maestro’s politics and the revolutions he brought about
Watching the entire oeuvre of a filmmaker in one go, rather than watching them one at a time over several years, can give one deeper insights into the individual’s style and constant concerns. Especially so, when it is a filmmaker like Jean Luc Godard, whose first film
Breathless came out in 1960, and the latest
The Image Book in 2018.
When film critic G.P. Ramachandran began writing a book on Godard, the first thing he did was to sit down and watch the films one by one. But again, in the case of someone like Godard, who has constantly reinvented himself, making many a film unlike each other, jumping from one medium to another, shifting from one genre to next, it would be worthy to study those changes over the years.