Analysing a movie like Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam (Like An Afternoon Dream) is akin to assembling items of an elaborate jigsaw puzzle. The method of writing concerning the movie turns into a chance to find its intricate design. It has been over a couple of weeks since filmmaker Lijo Jose Pellissery’s newest providing premiered on Netflix, and the web has been flooded with a number of theories and breakdowns. The film’s premise is deceptively easy, following a Malayali theatre group returning to Kerala by bus after their non secular go to to Velankani. Issues take a flip for the trance-like when James (Mammootty) stops the bus and visits a village in Tamil Nadu. He walks across the streets with assurance and function, coming into an unsuspecting household’s residence, assuming the character of Sundaram, a local milk man who had gone lacking a few years earlier. We quickly witness an agnostic James, who detests the surplus sugar in his espresso, reworking right into a deeply non secular, Tamil-speaking, “son of the soil” with a candy tooth.
It’s a testomony to the facility of Mammooty’s efficiency that regardless of the transformation occurring in a extremely nuanced, delicate trend, the characters of James and Sundaram seem distinct. The interpretations behind the peculiar occasions of the story vary from James having a dissociative character dysfunction to being possessed by the spirit of Sundaram. Some have even argued that the occasions are nothing greater than a dream in James’s head as he naps on the bus. Every rationalization stands justified relying on one’s studying of the occasions. These interpretations aren’t simply indicative of Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam’s complexity however are additionally revealing of how private the movie is to folks. Lijo Jose has crafted a movie that evokes the sensation of getting simply skilled a strong dream and on the similar time, an allegory for all of cinema itself.
Identical to how James unquestioningly adopts the id of Sundaram, we additionally lose our notion of time, area, and logic in our goals. The expertise feels uncannily actual and impacts us, even when it doesn’t make sense looking back. Despite the fact that goals bear little to no consequence within the every day cycle of life, whereas we’re in them, the stakes are increased than ever. Equally, the occasions occurring to James/Sundaram aren’t certain by actuality, but they’re transferring of their affect. Identical to how we can’t pinpoint when our goals really start, we are able to by no means really decipher the second James turns into Sundaram. The logic of cinema performs out just like the logic of goals. Identical to goals, motion pictures have an effect on us on a unconscious degree. There may be not an outlined sense of logic in cinema. Filmmakers consciously manipulate spatial geographies, the foundations of physics, and narrative buildings as cinematic strategies to reinforce this viewing expertise. Despite the fact that we’re conscious of the phantasm, the very best movies affect us in methods actuality cannot.
Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam options a number of Tamil movie songs and movie scenes that play within the background, appearing as a metaphor for the predicament of James/Sundaram and each of their households. In a sure sense, the Lijo Jose directorial is a mirrored image of the goals we’ve got whereas we’re asleep and an ode to cinema: the medium the place folks convert their most vivid fantasies and creativeness into actuality.
All these abstractions wouldn’t work if the movie didn’t have an overarching philosophy and emotional heft. Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam has each in equal measure. The philosophy comes within the type of a bite-sized verse from the Thirukkural .“To sleep is to die, and to get up from sleep is delivery,” utters a lodge receptionist to James, foreboding the occasions about to observe. The Kural isn’t just used as an allegory, but in addition defines the cyclical nature of demise and rebirth that performs closely into the movie. As we witness Mammootty strolling within the village, it nearly appears as if James is reborn as Sundaram. The religious rebirth to Sundaram brings with it the demise of James. All of the issues that had been central to James’s id and pricey to him: the love for his household, his non secular beliefs, connection, and affinity for the life and tradition of Kerala are altogether dissipated.
“I belong to this village. This soil belongs to my father and grandfather. I shall be buried right here,” proclaims a helpless Sundaram in Tamil after the Malayali theatre troupe tries to tug him away from the village to the bus. The movie appears to posit that the distinctions and divisions humanity has created for itself are rendered ineffective within the inevitable cycle of demise and rebirth. An agnostic can flip non secular, a true-blue Malayali can change into a true-blue Tamilian upon rebirth. All these distinctions are superbly depicted within the diametrically reverse personalities of James and Sundaram. The twin identities trigger wrenching ache in strikingly alternative ways to each wives within the movie. Sally, James’s spouse, is struck with the terrifying expertise of witnessing her husband flip into a whole stranger earlier than her eyes. Whereas Poongulazhi, Sundaram’s spouse, has to take care of the ire of her daughter and brother-in-law for harboring James into her residence, believing him to be a manifestation of Sundaram.
It nearly appears as if a grand cosmic design ordains James to show into Sundaram. “God has despatched him to your property. Let him sleep tonight”, says the pinnacle priest, believing the event to be divine intervention. But nearly all of the characters within the village doubt the intentions and actions of James/ Sundaram, satisfied that he’s a fraudster. It’s mentioned that seeing is believing. Paradoxically it is solely his blind mom who accepts him wholeheartedly. Identical to we by no means query the logic of our goals whereas we’re in them, Sundaram’s mom by no means for as soon as questions that the person resting on her lap may very well be anybody aside from Sundaram. The movie harbors such moments of serendipity all through its narrative, and but it is rather intentional in its type.
The surreal really feel of the story is compensated by a really hardline, real looking strategy within the method and remedy. Lijo resists the urge to make something really feel theatrical or cinematic and within the course of, breaks totally new floor on the subject of the technical facet. There may very well be a number of moments within the movie the place background rating may have been added to make the scene extra dramatic. But, we’re solely handled to outdated Tamil movie songs, scenes, and ambient sounds. These acutely aware decisions operate to raise the movie right into a meta sensory expertise. The movie is all of the extra superior for it. Theni Eshwar’s cinematography captures every thing in a sequence of exquisitely composed static pictures. This lends a lifelike high quality to the proceedings, because it seems like we’re watching a efficiency on a stage. As a substitute of changing into a personality, the digital camera takes an observer’s viewpoint, which information the humour and tragedy of the human situation. The framing is such that Sundaram is seen by means of the confines of objects, making him appear as if a sufferer certain by his destiny.
As a lot because the technical achievements and novel story impressed upon the primary watch, the movie belongs to Mammootty. The actor instructions the viewer’s consideration with out ever hogging the limelight. The actor will get a number of moments to shine, like re-enacting a well-known scene from the Sivaji Ganesan authorized drama Gauravam, and searching completely perplexed when a barber fingers him a mirror, and he, for the primary time discovers James within the reflection. The tightrope stroll that the actor has pulled off deserves most reward. The physique language, dialect, and conduct are completely different in each the characters, but they appear minimize out from the identical fabric. The magic of Mammootty’s efficiency lies in its subtlety.
Arguably, the very best little bit of Mammootty’s efficiency occurs throughout the movie’s climax when James regains his unique id after a day nap. Within the scene, the actor wakes up like he’s being jolted out of a dream. The metamorphosis isn’t explicitly acknowledged, but it’s conveyed to a chilling impact by the actor, together with his burdened, defiant eyes. You get the sense that despite the fact that all is properly, the occasions have modified him for the remainder of his life. Identical to James, who’s remodeled by the dreamlike occasions of the movie, nice cinema like Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam alter our present notions of life, even whether it is only for a couple of days after watching the film.
