The Ambitious, Disjointed, Glorious Mess that is Rorschach

 

Film: Rorschach

Cast: Mammootty, Bindu Panicker, Grace Antony, Sharafudheen, Jagadish, Sanju Sivram
Director: Nissam Basheer 

Comic books are for children.

They are at a stage where their attention is easily diverted, and they are not yet accustomed to reading too much. A short story with pictures is more likely to grab their interests.  A British writer called Alan Moore disagreed. He was making a living writing for comics, but decided there was no reason that his imagination should be shackled because of the medium. He was so ahead of the pack that many of his works are considered masterpieces, which kind of goes against the definition of masterpiece. Moore’s most acclaimed work was a spectacular subversion of the superhero trope. Watchmen redefined what the limitation of a comic book was.

Comic books are not just for children.

The most famous of the flawed super-heroes in Watchmen was Rorschach. A vigilante who deals in absolutes, Rorschach is defined by his mask which is reminiscent of the inkblots in the Rorschach test. Writer Sameer Abdul and director Nissam Basheer have taken a lot of inspiration from Watchmen. If they claim otherwise, it is possibly because they are scared of being sued by DC Comics.

It is a rainy night in a small village somewhere in the less habited areas of Kerala. A man walks into a police station and asks them to find his pregnant wife. They were in an accident and when he regained consciousness, she had disappeared. The search continues for a few days and slowly loses steam. The wife seems to have disappeared, probably dragged away by a tiger or a leopard. But there doesn’t seem to be any tracks. 

While the Police lose hope, the man Luke Antony (Mammootty) continues his search. Only Balan (Mani Shornur) still supports his quest. But is Balan just a well-wisher? We get close to Balan’s family – his wife Seetha (Bindu Panickkar), widowed daughter-in-law Sujatha (Grace Antony), younger son Anil (Sanju Sivram) and son-in-law Shashankan (Kottayam Nazeer). Balans’s elder son Dileep had died in an accident a couple of years before. Adding to the merry group is Satheeshan (Sharafudheen), a young man who had been once enamoured with Sujatha, and Ashraf (Jagadish), a cop who does not exactly believe all is what it looks like. Over two-and-a-half hours we learn more about Luke and his wife and why he came to that place.  

Director Basheer has only one other directorial credit and screenwriter Sameer has two. Well, no one told them that, it seems. They set out to craft a movie that blows your mind. To hell with inexperience. They had a cracker of a story and trusted their audience to keep up. The head is the most important organ in Rorschach, sometimes way too literally. But that was not enough. They were tired of seeing good Malayalam movies not travelling wide because of production values. Rorschach should change that. As I said, no one warned them against dreaming big.

They got Mammootty on board. Forty years in the industry and 70 on the planet; yet if you get Mammootty, a lot of your challenges will diminish. The Megastar puts in another committed performance. One that is so good that it almost makes you forget that the character is supposed to be much younger. The scenes with his wife Sofie (Ira Noor) leave a bitter taste in your mouth as she is obviously too young. Bheeshma Parvam, from earlier this year, had Mammootty doing some crazy physical stunts, but it had embraced him as an elder statesman. Much as one wants to see the thespian in this role, one also wishes they had added a few years to his character.

My 16-year-old who had to be dragged to see the movie said that Seetha was like the lead. She was right. If there is a single reason that Rorschach should exist, I would say it is because they managed to give Bindu Panicker this role. For years she has been typecast as the comic relief. Here she gets a role that transforms her to an able foil for the lead actor. And the best part, you realise that only after the credits have rolled and you think about what you saw. If Malayalam cinema is not able to give her more roles to showcase her ability, then we are the losers. 

Another standout is Grace Anthony. She plays the character you empathise with the most. Starting as a meek widow trying to make ends meet, while preserving her husband’s reputation, she slowly transforms into a strong woman who wants to shuffle the hand she has been dealt with. Veteran comedian Jagadish goes against type in a role that should have been much more. There are many newcomers in different roles and every single one of them is up to the task. 

Mammootty, who produced the film under his production company, has spared no expense. He wanted the movie to look and feel like an international film. The technical team does not have legends among them, but they are all up to the task. Production design plays a big role as a lot of the movie takes place within an unfinished house.

A special call-out to composer Midhun Mukundan who is making his Malayalam debut. It is rare that a Malayalam movie has English songs playing in the background. But, boy, do they work. Sung by Midhun himself, the songs give an ethereal quality to the film. The lyrics don’t always make sense, but they work.

The main problem with Rorschach is that of most ambitious movies. It tries to do too much. The script varies between a whodunnit to a revenge drama to a supernatural thriller to many more. There are sub-plots, like the whole Ammu section, that could have been easily dispensed with. The twists are one too many and flirts with the boundary of jarring. 

It is evident that the makers are massive Mammootty fans. They need their idol to do some stunts. Unfortunately, the story suffers when that happens. Mammootty has a long line of films that pandered to his fan following. But the same fans have also embraced enough of his movies where he was anything but heroical.  But I guess some considerations should have been made for the enormous budget. 

There is a line in Watchmen that the character Rorschach says. “I’m not locked in here with you, you're locked in here with me.” Rorschach, the movie insists that you pay attention for 150 minutes, promising a massive payoff. That is not quite delivered. But at no point during those 150 minutes did I want to look anywhere but the screen. I was locked in there with Rorschach.  

The Batman Who Disappears

Film: The Batman

Cast: Robert Pattinson, Zoe Kravitz, Jeffrey Wright, Andy Serkis, John Turturro, Colin Farrell

Director: Matt Reeves

Some time over his history Batman got the epithet The World’s Greatest Detective. A lot of comic-book storylines do talk about that, but other than The Long Halloween, very few of them actually involve him using the grey cells to any ‘great’ levels. Definitely not in the way a certain Knighted gentleman answering to the name Arthur defined ‘greatest detective’. The movies were mostly set pieces of action and spectacle. Matt Reeves, though, doesn’t want to give up without a fight.

An election is looming in Gotham. Incumbent mayor Don Mitchell (Rupert Perry-Jones) and challenger Bella Real (Jayme Lawson) are going hammer and tongs at each other. Just then there is a high-profile murder. And then another. And then yet another. Lieutenant James Gordon (Wright) and his brother-in-arms, the masked vigilante Batman (Pattinson) try to make sense of the serial murders. Each of the killings have a message addressed to the Batman and it contains riddles. Who is this Riddler and what is his agenda? How is he connected to Gotham’s mob bosses Carmine Falcone (Turturro) and Oswald Cobblepot (Farrell)? And why is nightclub hostess Selina Kyle (Kravitz) dressing up in black and going around on a fast bike?  

The origin story in a movie is a dreaded spectacle for anyone who already knows it. Matt Reeves completely eschews it. The Batman is already entrenched in Gotham. People know about him and have opinions about his actions. Right at the beginning there is a scene that is classic misdirection. You think you recognize what is going on because you have seen it many times before in slightly different versions of the origin story. Then you realise it is something totally different. 

The major bone I have to pick with the movie is its casting. John Turturro is a great actor, but one is not going to get a sense of dread when he is around. Why would you cast Colin Farrell in your movie if you were going to hide him under prosthetics? Moving towards a younger Alfred is welcome, but nothing Andy Serkis does convinces you that he is good at being a butler! 

Then you have the decent performances. Jeffrey Wright and Peter Sarsgaard do their roles justice. They are pros, after all. The main villain also acquits himself well. What is with the name Zoe in Hollywood and the increase in temperature? Ms Kravitz does not reach Ms Saldana’s levels of smouldering heat, but that is probably because her role is likely to be expanded only in the sequels. 

Robert Pattinson will always be the pale vampire from the Twilight movies. Some things cannot be changed. But if you were to check out his filmography after the series that made him, you will see that every single film he did after that was an intentional journey to the unknown territory. He had no ego about playing second or third fiddle. The directors he has worked with include some bona fide geniuses of the medium. When he was announced as the next Dark Knight, the internet exploded. This was just to get teen girls to buy tickets, they said. Batman can’t be pretty, they claimed. It will take years to wipe the memory of RPatz in the cowl, they moaned.

That last one is absolutely right. It will take some doing to get him out of your minds. Because Robert Pattinson absolutely owns it. He is here to stay. But the way he does it is what is most impressive. Along with director Matt Reeves and writer Peter Craig, he has created a Batman who disappears. Into the story. You could literally remove Batman from the story and replace him with any other character and it would work just as well. This is the first Batman who doesn’t stand out in his movie. This is also the best Batman story on screen, bar none.

Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne does not wisecrack or pretend to womanise. He is deeply troubled, but that is not his defining trait. He knows how to fight, but there are neither martial arts manoeuvres, nor raw power, just street brawling. His suit is uncomplicated and his shoes are heavy weather. What he does is try to solve the mystery before it is too late. He is detective first; superhero, maybe never. 

There is a very 80s aesthetic about the movie. If it were not for a few mobile phones, you would have definitely thought so. The no-frills all-business Batmobile is another throwback. Call out to Warner Bros for not insisting on 3D. The movie is so dark that you probably would have needed night-vision goggles along with 3D glasses. I am a huge admirer of what Christopher Nolan achieved with his trilogy, but next to The Batman, his movies seem like expensive set pieces one after the other. This one is down and really dirty.

There are multiple twists at the end. Maybe a couple too many. This led to the three-hour runtime. Something your bladder and my back has issues with. The climax seems a bit contrived. But it ends up serving the story. There are no smart quips or bombastic speeches. The Batman never seems bloated despite its running length. It is muscular without defined muscles. It takes its time, but is never boring. It lacks set pieces, but the action doesn’t lack imagination. It has a story to tell, and all the weight behind comics’ most admired intellectual property will not prevent the story from being said. 

This is how you make a Batman movie. Oh, hell, yeah!

Five on a Malayalam Binge

Film: Minnal Murali (Lightning Murali)
Cast: Tovino Thomas, Guru Somasundaram, Baiju, Femina George, Shelley Kishore, Vasisht Umesh
Director: Basil Joseph

Superhero fatigue exists: True. Malayalam movies have been miles ahead of other Indian industries in exploiting the OTT boom: Also true. Between these realities I was faced with the decision of whether or not to watch Minnal Murali on Netflix. To be honest, the clincher was the fact that back in 2020, right wing activists had destroyed a set on the banks of the river Periyar. (The meme that came out late last year after the movie’s release, about why the vandalism had supposedly taken place, is brilliant!)

Minnal is touted to be the first superhero movie in Malayalam. It is not. But Netflix’s publicity machine ensures that the others are just footnotes, this is appointment viewing.

Jaison (Thomas) is a small-time tailor who yearns to go to the US and make his fortune. Shibu (Somasundaram) is an assistant in a tea shop. During a big storm, they are both struck by lightning. They wake up with powers. I can almost hear squeals of ‘Marvel!’ from you. And that is not wrong. The origin story is Spiderman, the hero-villain dynamic is every MCU movie, the sidekick is Jacob Batalon if you reduce 10 years. 

Why am I still writing about it? Well, we Mallus always have a few tricks up a sleeve. A lungi-clad superhero was, of course, going to happen. But when the dust settles and you start thinking about the movie you just saw, it will come as shock that this was really a story of Minnal Shibu. The super-powered villain is the hero in his story and everyone else is a villain. Shibu is an outcast in more ways than one. You don’t quite buy the exact reasoning by which he starts his descent into darkness, but you can’t shake away the feeling that he was more harmed than harmful. Anchoring that is the multi-layered performance by Guru Somasundaram, who uses his accented Malayalam as another arrow in the anvil of Shibu’s characteristics.

Tovino Thomas, like all wannabe superstars, is involved in most aspects of his movies’ production. In Kala, where he played a foil to an absolutely unhinged Sumesh Moor and in Minnal, where he is happy to leave the heavy lifting to Guru Somasundaram, we are seeing a rather rare star. One who is not threatened by the superior acting prowesses of his co-stars, but, instead, supports them. He brings the muscles, the self-deprecating humour and an innate decency.

The other actors all play their roles well. Harisree Ashokan, who was an omnipresent comic relief in movies in the early 2010s makes a comeback in a serious role. Femina George, Shelly Kishore and Sneha Babu play female characters that are well-written regardless of the screen time. The story is set in the 90s. You won’t realise that while watching the movie. It is not shot as a period movie and kudos to director Basil Joseph for that. The theme music by Sushin Shyam is an earworm. 

Minnal Murali is rather long. The songs could have been skipped. The climax in the aforementioned set is overblown and doesn’t make much sense. But mostly, the movie brings a sense of frustration during the viewing. At some point, the audience will realise this is not the movie that was advertised far and wide. Some will feel cheated. Others, like me, will feel it isn’t subversive enough.

Film: Kurup
Cast: Dulquer Salman, Indrajith Sukumaran, Sunny Wayne, Sobhitha Dhulipala, Shine Tom Chacko
Director: Srinath Rajendran

The state of Kerala is among the smallest in Kerala. The people of the state of Kerala are among the loudest. Known as Malayalis, from our mother tongue Malayalam, we are ubiquitous. Anywhere around the world you will encounter a Malayali. There is even a joke that when Neil Armstrong and his team landed on the moon they were met by Gopiettan, a Malayali selling tea and vada! It is a fictitious story. But is it?

Among the many fields that Malayalis lead the pack, like literacy, higher education, health, common sense, etc., there is also a slightly dubious one. The longest wanted fugitive in India – Sukumara Kurup – is a Malayali. Growing up, I was aware of the myth of Kurup. A myth that spread because of him not being caught, rather than being a criminal mastermind. To this day, the most the authorities have been able to connect to him was a murder for insurance fraud. 

Kurup, the movie, borrows the basic premise from the fugitive’s life and then adds an ample dose of creative license to bring before us a master tactician. Gopikrishna Kurup (Dulquer) flunks college. He joins the Indian Air Force and meets Peter (Wayne), a fellow cadet. After training, he is posted to Bombay, where he meets Sharadamma (Shobitha), a nurse who hails from his village. A series of seemingly unconnected events occur and Gopikrishnan is dead. Or is he?

Dulquer immerses himself fully into the role. He has the charisma to carry the antihero forward. But the writers make a lot of concessions to the star image. Shobitha convinces no one that she comes from an impoverished family. Her looks are too exotic for her to be taken as a Malayali at face value. Sunny Wayne and Shine Tom Chacko have the meatiest roles. Indrajith is understated, overtly so. 

Srinath Rajendran and his writing team seem to be apprehensive that a septuagenarian Sukumara Kurup might still be alive and could come after them. There is a huge disclaimer in the beginning, the names are slightly changed, and they sanitised Kurup. The story reveals itself through the pages of a diary that Indrajith’s character keeps. The Machiavellian attributes of the character are revealed through fantastic incidents that do not exactly catch our attention. The various chapters do not exactly gel together. There are too many missing links. 

Ultimately, Kurup, the movie, suffers because of the character. The name was important to get people’s attention. But Kurup’s notoriety, as I said before, is more because of his fugitive status. Kurup had the potential to be a seriously enjoyable escapist fare. Instead, it believes in the fiction that got added to the known facts and we end up with a sad attempt at merging history with entertainment.

Film: Madhuram (Sweetness)
Cast: Joju George, Shruti Ramachandran, Arjun Ashokan, Nikhila Vimal, Indrans
Director: Ahammed Khabeer

Whenever kids demand extra helpings of something sweet, Malayali grandparents have a readymade answer: In excess, even elixir is poisonous. Ahammed Khabeer probably didn’t get much sweets as a kid. He decided to get back at his elders in a unique way. He would try to make the sweetest movie and even name it Madhuram. 

Most Indian hospitals require a patient to have a bystander. They would get food, medicine and whatever the patient needed. Our story begins in a bystanders’ waiting room, where a group of people from different walks of life get together. What all of them have in common is a loved one in a hospital bed. Sabu (George) is there for his wife Chitra (Ramachandran), who had a really bad fall. Kevin (Ashokan) is there for his mother, who is waiting for a date for a surgery. He is also going through a rough patch with his wife Cherry (Vimal) who can’t get along with his mother at all. 

Despite the interesting premise, Madhuram loses steam once we realise that it is a formulaic love story. Khabeer, who also scripted it, tries to put the dynamic of a sweet romance against a sour marriage. It works initially, especially because one is happening, while the other is all flashbacks. But then it becomes tedious. That the patients are hardly seen is a very interesting and conscious decision. 

Joju George is horribly miscast. He is too old for the role. But Joju is not one of the best actors working in Malayalam films for nothing. He gives it his all and there are times we are almost convinced. He is also the producer of the movie, so there was never any doubt that the role would go to another person! But what works is the chemistry he has with Shruti Ramachandran. Whenever they are on screen together, it is all madhuram. Shruti has precious little serious lifting to do, but she brings a wholesome presence.

Arjun Ashokan, son of veteran comedian Harishree Ashokan, acquits himself honourably. Nikhila Vimal does not stand out, though. We are in the midst of an Indrans renaissance, and we are lucky for that. A slapstick comedian in his younger days, Indrans discovered a second career recently as a serious actor. He brings real emotion as an elderly gentleman very much in love with his wife. 

Madhuram is a crowd-pleaser. With a setting that is familiar to every family, and characters that are flawed, but good-at-heart, it does strike a chord. It does not feel manufactured like #Home, another Indrans vehicle. But I cannot help but feel cheated out of a great movie, when the story of the bystanders got pushed to the background. That, and the fact that there is no way someone who drives a Mini Cooper would admit his mother in a Government hospital!

Film: Bheemante Vazhi (Bheeman’s Way)
Cast: Kunchacko Boban, Jinu Joseph, Vincy Aloshious, Divya M Nair, Megha Thomas, Chemban Vinod Jose, Chinnu Chandni Nair
Director: Ashraf Hamza

The state of Kerala had the first ever democratically-elected Communist government in the world. Those are not words that usually go together. There is still a Communist government. But these are new-age communists. The head of the government just went to the US for a health check-up! But, back in the day, the government was able to bring about a series of social changes that reflect in the state’s stature today. 

There were also some negative impacts due to this. One of the most common is the concept of right of way. Simply put, it says that everyone deserves a path to go to his plot of land. It is a right. This probably came to existence because rich landowners would force poor folks out of their lands by preventing them access. Afterwards, it started being misused. Unscrupulous folks would claim a path where none existed. It is very hard to get a ruling against a path and the litigation would last for years. Almost every family in Kerala has an experience like this. 

This scenario is so common that everything in Bheemante Vazhi rings true because most of us have fared worse! Sanju aka Bheeman (Boban) lives with his mother in a colony near a railway track. The various houses have a road that is barely wide enough for a motorcycle. A medical emergency convinces Bheeman that the colony needed a wider road. With the help of local politician Reetha (Divya M Nair) he goes about convincing people to donate some of their land for the road. Other than the red tape the major hurdle to cross is the crooked antics of local rich man Kostheppu (Joseph). 

Bheemante Vazhi’s biggest success is that it sets itself as a comedy and sticks to it, despite the subject matter. This is not a laugh-a-minute comedy. It reminds one of Sathyan Anthikaad’s breezy, but thoughtful, family entertainers of the 80s. You identify with the characters, understand their situations and smile as the movie moves forward. The screenplay from actor Chemban Vinod Jose never feels like it overstays its welcome. 

Kunchacko Boban is in his wheelhouse and he never falters there. Divya M Nair has a plum role and she bites into it. The supporting players are brilliant, regardless of the screen time. Jose gives himself a very small role when he could have written himself into prominence. The standout is Jinu Joseph, who gets the role of a lifetime. Clad in only a lungi, he exposes the greedy, conniving and hot-tempered nature of Kostheppu. In other words, he holds up a mirror to a lot of Malayali men. 

Bheeman has three heroines. Normally, this points to extreme misogyny on the part of the character. I was reminded of Diamond Necklace, a Fahadh Faasil vehicle where he had three heroines and all were written in a very regressive way. It comes as such a surprise to see that the treatment here is the opposite. Bheeman is clueless and all three women are smart and strong. 

The film gets its name from a story in the Mahabharatha. Bheeman, the strongest of warriors was off on a task. Lord Hanuman decided to teach the cocksure young man a lesson and takes the form of an old monkey who is lying on the wayside with his tail across the path. An angry Bheeman asks him to move, but the old monkey says he is too weak and asks the warrior to just move his tail and continue on his way. Obviously, Bheeman could not do it despite his strength. It is an apt title for the movie. To get his ‘way’, Bheeman has to try out a lot of ways.

Film: No Man’s Land
Cast: Sreeja Das, Lukman Lukku, Sudhi Koppa
Director: Jishnu Harindra Varma

Life sometimes deals you a tough hand. You could choose to accept it and do nothing, or try and make it better or make it worse. Human beings can never be trusted to follow a fixed path.

Somewhere in hills there is a small resort. It is run by the owner. He has just one help, Mathayikutty (Lukku), who somehow does all the jobs that need to be done on the estate. There is also a mysterious woman Sumitra who is in the resort. She helps on the kitchen side, but also gives other services to guests who are looking for more than lodging. A young couple who turn up one night suddenly changes the dynamic in the claustrophobically close-knit group.

No Man’s Land is an experiment. At no point does it pretend to be for everyone. Loosely constructed around the seven deadly sins, Director Jishnu’s script is split into three chapters, supposedly telling the story from three characters. However, the individual point of view aspect does not come through. 

Beginning as meditation on loneliness and companionship, then moving into unexpected violence and then making a half-assed attempt at being a whodunnit, No Man’s Land is like a beast tied up with a very long chain. It runs all around in different directions, but cannot actually let go and become free. 

Sreeja Das takes on a very complex role. A very brave decision, considering the character is likely to be a bit older than she is. Dangerous territory for an aspiring heroine. She is not fully convincing in her actions, but doesn’t disappoint. Lukman Lukku has the flashier role as a young man whose mental development is stunted. His mannerisms may be a little grating, but when he lets himself go, he can be scary. Sudhi Koppa is the straight man in the mix. 

No Man’s Land is shot at a single location, probably Covid-mandated. In the middle of the run-of-the-mill fare that is all over the OTT world, it is refreshing to see something that refuses to follow diktats. It is also frustrating to see how it does not reward your renewed expectations. Perhaps that is the intent.