User Reviews

On an election day holiday, a group of middle aged Malayali men retreat to an abandoned lodge in the forest to chimp out . They get stone drunk. Some of them try to seduce the fiery female cook. The liquor flushes out all the crap inside them (not literally of course). They argue violently over class, caste and color. To calm frayed tempers, one of the men suggests that they play a game. The game begins to get a bit to real.

The film can be watched for the cinematography and the locales. Despite the ugliness of the lodge, the visuals are hypnotic. The camera is often hidden behind trees or leaves as if somebody is peeping in at the drunk antics of the men. There are also long tracking shots (did Lijo Jose Pellisery watch this?)

Ozhivudivasathe Kali presents the true face of the drunk Malayali male and it is not as pleasant as watching the glorified drunks in Angamaly Diaries or Bachelor Party. The ending when election results are declared and the TV tells us that "the elections do not matter" was a nice touch. There is some blatant foregrounding when one of the men hangs a chicken to death in the middle of the film.

But the film also has a lot of flaws. You know right from the beginning where this film is going. You're told right at the beginning how to feel about these males. Everything that transpires after the long drinking scene near the stream at the beginning of the movie is neither shocking nor surprising. Also, none of the actors are charming. It is almost as if they cast the first ugly pot bellied male that came along for the audition. Nisthar Ahamed sort of grows on you though. Abhija Sivakala as the fiery cook is also quite good.

It is on Netflix.

(6/10)

The movie starts from a scene where a group of people gather around a shallow and plan how they will be spending the coming off-day. Our view is obstructed by two small twigs and this shot continues for minutes with no practical movement. This block and difficulty in seeing completely what happens is central to the film. It is like the camera with the audience is spying them or trying to overhear them, something that should only reside among themselves. Their plan is about boozing up the coming day in a quieter place with no disturbance despite the fact that the general election to the state assembly is on its way.

The group comprises people from all ages and all social divisions. There are representatives from the higher stratum of social ladder, from the lower stratum and also those who are in between them. It is evident that their group is formed on the basis of liquor and that liquor sets no difference between people on their social status. In this regard it is a unifier. However we will soon discover the role of liquor as a discord generator.

The place they have decided to spend off the day is blessed for its enigmatic side and natural appeal. It is as if the nature herself conspires with the drunk to fly off in their fantasies. We see a capsized boat in the lake symbolizing a state the group will soon be in. The boat and the still water are two important stages in the life of an alcoholic; inebriety and death. Nature sometimes becomes the sole observer of their acts, like the omniscient God (Camera takes us so).

An act they all set out to do just after taking a bath in the lake is the cutting of a jackfruit that they thought was ripe but found not. Previous to this scene we have seen that they already had arranged a man to help them with the place and a woman to cook food items (touchings in the local slang), especially chicken and tapioca. However what we see is that after they got the jackfruit, they are canceling their earlier plan and asking the woman to stop preparing the tapioca porridge but to prepare jackfruit. The language and way of talking tell us that they have had their earlier share of liquor. And with this thing (Jackfruit) we understand how fickle these people are and how senseless they really are. In fact the group have bordered the line between sanity and insanity. Nobody talks sense here. Nothing makes sense here.

A helper they had arranged (a forest watchman or so) gets drunk with them and loses consciousness. He stays like that until the movie ends; like half dead and half alive. It is like one is dead but one is still alive; another state that liquor creates. The movie touches issues like security of women and role of women in the political system of the country.

The woman, Geeta is marked by two of the men. They try to make sexual advancements toward her. However the woman knowing the danger fights back quickly; once with retorts and another time with a sickle. Earlier when someone brought her attention to politics, she replied "isn't that men's game sir?.

Interestingly the flip side of liquor (discord generator) starts from an interesting scene where two among them (of course drunk) start talking about women. One holds onto the view that women should be subjugated physically and sexually. While the other holds that women should be let alone if they do not seem like enjoying men's sexual advancements. The two touch on personal issues where the one tease another on his lack of manliness and the other on his hypocritical stance on women when it touches his family (especially his wife).

What liquor brings out here is the hidden workings (mostly philosophical and theoretical) of one's mind. At this point they begin to talk about one another's professional life and personal life. Bias and hypocrisy that they have previously suppressed easily come out with the help of liquor. It creates discord in the group. The differences of opinion leads one person to make the decision to quit the group. However a person (Dasan) (who will soon become a scapegoat, though he himself is not without blemishes) tries to reconcile him. Sooner the other two who crossed their words with the man also come and try to reconcile him. Reason for their desperate tries is needless to be discussed since it is easy to understand how quickly liquor erases memories (here, discords) and how drunkenness sometimes allows a flash of sense though we cannot tell when.

From the non-animated eatable Jackfruit which they somehow conquer (cutting the jackfruit itself is a heavy task for them now) they begin to move onto hen; animated eatable. The problem is that nobody is willing to kill the hen. The responsibility is shifted from one person to another where it finally reaches the shoulder of Dasan, the youngest in their group who is also a lower caste.

Dasan is also not willing to kill it. However as it is presently on his shoulder he has to do something. He decides to hang the hen! The hen is hanged and the camera moves onto an unmoving water body; symbolic of life and death. We also hear the dying hen's flutter.