Mexico, Cuba, Bolivia, Argentina - thunders the rousing line in the
song Kalipp, katta kalipp, as it tries to capture the pulse of young
revolutionary Kerala in the movie, 'Oru Mexican Aparatha' (A Mexican
Eternity/Infinity/Continuity anything but Enormity.)
For a red-blooded Malayali who has not traveled much outside this tiny
sliver of a state in southern India called
Kerala, these Latin American
countries are closer to his/her heart than say the capital of India, New
Delhi. So was Russia at the some point,
before glasnost and perestroika and finally Putin signed off on
Russia's fall from grace in Malayalis' eye - but that's another story
for another time.
2017 is painting the screens red for Malayalam cinema. The confluence
of progressive young film makers and a communist-Marxist leadership
back in power at the state has created a fertile time and space for left
of the center films and all that
amor for Latin America. In addition to Mexican Aparatha, there is
CIA (Comrade in America) and Sakhavu, each showcasing a leading young
actor in a left-leaning role and their posters literally painting Kerala
red.
It's after a long time I have seen a movie with campus politics as
its central theme. The election fever in a college campus and the
political rivalry of Kerala's two main political parties - the so called
right (Congress party's youth wing - KSU) and the
Communist Marxist party's youth wing - SFI, is palpable in the film.
The characters are real, make-up minimal, flags plentiful and songs
rebellious and upbeat in this movie which is a tribute to the most
politically conscientious audience in all of India.
The script is not the strongest, but I think the lack of knock-out
dialogs make it more real and accessible. The first-time director Tom
Ematty is probably exploring a scene and a place he is familiar with.
Maharaja's College - a premier educational institution
in central Kerala (Ernakulam / Cochin) has produced a lot of notable
people - from Mammootty, Dileep and Aashiq Abu to Balachandran
Chullikkad and Changampuzha. Maharaja's College and the men's hostel
where they keep it real with charcoal graffiti and body building competitions in underwear form the backdrop for the story of a band of friends with
SFY (~ SFI) affinity- portrayed by Tovino Thomas, Neeraj Madhav, Manu,
Vishnu Govind and others. Their rival camp of KSQ (~KSU) has
director-turned- actor Roopesh Pithambaran and Kalabhavan
Shajon leading the pack.
The film takes place in two distinct time periods in Kerala's
political history. The flashback part of it is played out in the watershed era
of the seventies with the Emergency and its baggage of persecutions,
rendered in the movie by a few bad wigs and a couple of songs.
This was the era which gave rise to the biggest political warriors in
Kerala's campuses like
Simon Britto and
Suresh Kurup. In the movie we
have the martyr Kunjaniyan, representing this fire brand youth brigade.
Most of the rest of the story supposedly takes
place in the present time which confuses me a bit because, where are
the cell phones? In the light of this glaring absence I can only assume
that the movie takes place in the late nineties or early 2000s?
A minor episode of campus crush featuring Tovino and Gayathri Suresh is thrown in to add some color and songs. The
story is an accurate sketch of the reality in Kerala's co-ed colleges
where female political representation is usually confined to a
sidelined Vice Chairman or an Arts Club secretary position. In
the grand scheme of the things, this film belongs squarely to its male
characters - Tovino and Neeraj Madhav, the heroes, who are
counter-balanced by the amazingly astute anti-hero, Roopesh.
Tovino's might be the face that will sell the movie but the director
has made believable actors out of Roopesh Pithambaran, Neeraj Madhav, Vishnu Govind
and Manu.
I started to
watch Oru Mexican Aparatha to while away a mindless hour or two. But
the film captured my attention thrusting two handsome and charismatic
heroes right-at-ya, right in the opening scenes,
Tovino Thomas and Che Guvera. Together they attained enlightenment in
Mexico, fled the weapons-wielding bourgeoisie and embraced the
red becoming martyrs for the cause of downtrodden. Ask anyone who has
roots in the land of chekavars (reference to a
Neeraj Madhav dialog in this movie), this is a sure-fire way to gain
our support. You placed your bets on the right story and the right
people, Anoop Kannan.
Major Ravi's moral bulletin of all humans being
bros, not defined by borders and political, religious or racial
interests is a commendable message to propagate through the medium of
cinema. As a member of not-his-target audience my grouse
is the cliche-laden story, the script that could have benefited from
having a script writer, the casual and incorrect use of conversational
English and the overwhelming presence of our 'complete' actor Mohanlal.
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