For the last few years Adoor’s films have
been talking more through characters than through frames. Pinneyum (2016) also is a film that depends mostly on the
characters than on individual scenes where we will usually have many things to
make out. It is true that Malayalam film industry bordered the line of pure
entertainment and has started appreciating novel ways of narration, thanks to
the influence of foreign films.
Many of the Malayalam films that come up
these days can be equally appreciated by serious viewers as well as by common
movie goers. This democratization in Malayalam film industry helps both types
of viewers to appreciate the merits of present films. So at a time like this
Adoor’s return in itself makes a mark where we can look for what directors like
him, who pushed forth the New Wave
Movement in Malayalam Cinema, have gotten to say. His latest, Pinneyum is a film that will not
disappoint common movie goers as a film that has an interesting plot to say but
also as a film that has many things that Adoors fans will be looking for. Because
of the facts we discussed in the beginning Adoor has opted a psycho-thriller
film which tries to examine the psychological workings of a thriller-book worm.
The central character Purushothaman Nair played by Dileep tries his maximum to
get into the persona of such a character. The jobless Purushothaman Nair (also
called Pillai) does nothing for the family in the role of a bread winner. A
stranger to his own daughter and wife, Purushothaman Nair is respected by no
one. The only thing he is good at is in reading thrillers. The eight years of
Purushothaman Nair as a jobless youth after graduation, only serves to become a
period of his research for a master crime. He could have easily gotten a job if
he just took getting job, a serious thing. So we are compelled to think that he
did not do enough to get one but deliberately withheld himself from entering into
a vocation. All he did was to convince his family that he took it seriously
while he actually had something else in his mind.
Existential crisis resulted from an
inclination toward evil rather greed for money is the motivation for
Purushothaman Nair’s crime. Could someone who is good at books of these sort
make a mistake that will put his entire family in danger? Certainly not. Then
why a crime that he could have been researching for a pretty long time became a
flop? So it is obvious that Nair had something more in his mind. The analysis
part as that is in many other movies happens here too in a tea shop where we
can always see a cross section of any society.
It then becomes obvious that he wanted his family members to go through
the same kind of neglect and worthlessness that he himself experienced in that
family. The first thing he does after going abroad (does he actually go
abroad?) is bringing a new double cot, making space for him in the family and
then abandoning his wife to lie there alone after his mysterious disappearance.
The mysterious person who claims that he is Nair forms part of a deep rooted
memory that the family cannot get rid of.
These illusive segments of a gothic character reflects that of Adoor’s
own idea from his Anantharam (1987).
There is a common saying
that goes like this, for every crime there will at least be a single evidence.
So here too we have an evidence. The canny crippled beggar (the first scapegoat
selected by Nair and his in laws) becomes that evidence who knows exactly what
had been going on; one of the only persons who can be connected to Nair’s death
to help forge a fake suicide note and connect himself in any way to his death. The
dead man’s son who starts a relationship with Nair’s and Devi’s daughter does
not also evade the pointer of suspicion.
There will be many more
points than the obvious ones one can make from a primary watch of the film.
However, how amusing stories create negative influence upon men is something
that the film can be said echoing. Adoor opined recently that he took the
source material for this film from the life of an infamous culprit who troubled
(and still) the Kerala Police for decades.
In any case, celebration of criminal brilliance is something that is
always to be discouraged in any type of art, be it in film or in novel.
-Anjoe Paul-
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