The invention, the joyous energy in the filmmaking left me with such a high that I didn’t particularly care that it all has to ‘mean’ something.
Spoilers ahead…
You can read the full review on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/jallikattu-movie-review-baradwaj-rangan-lijo-jose-pellissery-antony-varghese-santhy-balachandran/
In Lijo Jose Pellissery’s Jallikattu, a buffalo escapes slaughter and runs amuck in a village in Idukki. How dangerous does this situation sound? I mean, it’s a buffalo, not – say – a leopard. And it’s not exactly been drugged and prodded and provoked, like in the Tamil Nadu bull-taming event the title suggests. So are we to imagine this most bucolic of creatures on a rampage – running nonstop for the ninety-minute duration of the film, causing fires and devastating crops? But this absurdity is an integral part of this narrative, adapted from S Hareesh’s short story, Maoist. I Googled up the story, and found that it has a second buffalo, and that it’s about the Maoist situation and a person’s right to freedom. Even in the movie, the buffalo is a metaphor. But Jallikattu, is first and foremost, a textbook example of how to make an experimental movie that’s also a most entertaining movie.
Continued at the link above.
Copyright ©2019 Film Companion.
Baradwaj Rangan 
Sanjay Menon A R
October 7, 2019
Lijo’s films are usually filled with interesting characters and there is a lived in community felling in Amen,Angamaly dairies,Ee.mau.yau.
But I completely missed that thing here.Characters come and go and after sometime it is hard to care for anything.It may be precisely the point, but after the external visceral pleasure of filming is over there is nothing really left to linger on.Lijo uses more abstract symbolisms here ,but the film left me asking for some more.
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Rohit Sathish Nair
October 7, 2019
Where did you watch this? It was supposed to be released outside Kerala on 11th right?
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sorenkierky
October 7, 2019
The only minor quibble was that end which takes you to the spoiler alert cavemen fighting over flesh scene – was so redundant and a bit too loud in an otherwise superb film. I’d say this sort of takes the ‘marrying mainstream with art’ sort of films we’ve seen recently to the next level. And bloody hell, it was a visual treat – and while I was surprised re: the lack of character arcs/development, I guess the movie wouldn’t have worked/stayed so unique with that. And even then they’ve given us enough to have a fair idea about the geography and people who dwell there.
Couldn’t take my eyes off the screen till the very last scene. And as you rightly said, even without subtexts, it just.. worked.
LJP’s best film so far, IMO (Ee Ma Yau would be a close second for me).
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Krishna
October 20, 2019
Hello Mr. Rangan, can you please provide us with a link from where you read ‘Maoist’ from? I would love to read it too.
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tonks
October 20, 2019
A visual treat indeed but it reconfirms that I prefer content to form in film making, however spectacular the latter may be.
An interesting conversation I had after watching this movie about how masculinity has evolved these days to something so vastly different that they needed to use a relatively primitive community and back drop to make this movie. This wouldn’t have worked as well in a modern space. Also a movie like this makes it clear why men so often behave the way they do : the result of all those centuries of ingrained behaviour traits. It would be interesting to see how modern society (where nerds rule the world and strength of body is not important) would modify these traits to something quite different centuries in the future.
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Sutheesh Kumar
October 23, 2019
“Human choruses sing in primitive words, as though from a time before language was invented. (Wait till you see why, in the last scene. I was smiling through my dropped jaw.) If you listened to just the music, you’d think it was the soundtrack for an avant-garde dance performance — but then, the film, too, feels like an avant-garde performance”
Uncanny really how you catch the rythm of a movie and also translate it into words so vividly and beautifully.
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Manikandan V
November 1, 2019
Dear BR , if you allow for little indulgence,
How do you build a adrenaline pumping context, turn it upside down into a tale of wisdom with a single shot ?
Man becomes a beast can become a saint stays a beast watched by a saint
என்றோ மூட்டிய தீ ?
கரங்களில் ஏந்தினோம் தீப்பந்தம்,
திரவியம் அளித்த தீப்பந்தம்
என்றோ உருகிய சிறு பொறி அகலமைந்தது.
மனங்களில் ஏந்தினோம்
கால இருட்டின் சுவடிகளை படிக்கும் சின்னங்சிறு வெளிச்சத்தை,
ஆசைக்கும் தருமத்திற்கும் இடையே ஜல்லிக்கட்டு – உன்னை பார்வையாளனாக்கும் சிறு அகல் – போட்டியாளனாக்கும் தீப்பந்தம்
குகையிருந்து வெகு தூரம்
குகை மிக அருகில் –
தொன்று தொட்டு வந்த ஒளியின் வரிசையை
நினைவு கொள்வோம்.
தமிழ்நாடு ஜல்லிக்கட்டு போராட்டத்திற்கும் மலையாள ஜல்லிக்கட்டு திரைப்படத்திற்கும் உள்ள தொடர்பை மோகனம் சிறப்பாக விளக்கினார் – படம் புரியாதா காரணத்தால் வெற்றி நடை போடுகிறது – இது அடுத்த ” ஒரு நல்ல நாள் பார்த்து சொல்றேன்”.
ஜல்லிக்கட்டில் வரும் பிரபாகரன் யார் ?
ஜல்லிக்கட்டு படத்தில் வரும் எருமை தமிழர் பெருமையா ? தொடர்ந்து பேசுவோம் ,
எரிந்த ஜீப்பின் சாட்சியாக, பிரபாகரன் சாட்சியாக எறிந்த வெக்கப்போர் சாட்சியாக, சோன்பப்டி சாட்சியாக, நேப்பியர் பாலம் சாட்சியாக, செல் டார்ச் விளக்குகள் சாட்சியாக – மோகனம் உரை தொடக்கமாக,சந்தன வீரப்பன் காலத்து தமிழர் உணர்வும் அல்லலேலூயா தொலைக்காட்சி சாட்சியாக – மலையாள ஜல்லிக்கட்டு
வைக்கப்போருக்கு தீ வைத்த பிரபாகரன் தமிழர் பெருமை மீட்க முயல்கையில் வீர மரணம்
கட்டவிழும் ஆசைகள் நீண்டும் செல்லும் அப்பாதை முடிகையிலே குகை அருகே செல்வோம் மீண்டு உணர்ந்து வருகையில் அனைவருக்கும் பொதுவான முடிவாய் தருமராஜா தரிசனம்.
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Sutheesh Kumar
November 3, 2019
I watched this on the first weekend of it’s official release in Bengaluru. It’s a Visual and Aural treat.
All of you who missed this gem because of it’s limited release. Rejoice! It’s on Prime Video.
Watch it with your earphones.
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bart
November 4, 2019
A brilliant celebration of absurdity.. The bull runs amok throwing lights and heaving heavy sighs on the human bulls’ ludicrousness throughout. Magnificent work..
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Sutheesh Kumar
November 17, 2019
BR,
I really wish you do an interview with the ever reticent Lijo Jose Pellisery. Maybe he’ll open up to you.
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Amit Joki
December 5, 2019
Watched it on Amazon Prime. The cinematography was top-notch. The sound design perfect. But after sometime, it gets repetitive and with no one to connect to, in particular and there being episodes of short character development which doesn’t start and end in a definite arc made it seem like watching glimpses of everyone’s life but not registering anything noteworthy.
I felt the climax was overdone. May be, because I am a vegetarian, I didn’t buy the people’s wish to have a piece of the animal like they’d be dead if they didn’t. I get why they want to kill it, but to have a piece of it didn’t seem enough motivation for me for that climax to work.
It’s like you start to peek into people’s lives with a fantastic HD binocular (whatever that is) and when things start to get interesting, you move the lens to another life.
The technique is brilliant but the writing could have made space for us to actually connect to whatever’s happening. I was extremely piqued however as to how they filmed the sequences with the buffalo. It didn’t look like CGI until the last scene where it ambles slowly having been grievously injured.
I Googled up the story, and found that it has a second buffalo, and that it’s about the Maoist situation and a person’s right to freedom.
I guess that’s what that final buffalo’s imagery was when a guy dies. The buffalo represents his freedom from this supposed shitty life. Death is the true freedom.
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hari
May 9, 2020
The last 15 minutes was not what I expected, could have been more subtle I felt, rest I enjoyed very much. How are these Keralites making such awesome movies?
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krishikari
July 9, 2020
Just watched this testosterone fest and found it quite spectacular and fabulous. The sound, visuals (so much red meat), rhythms building up to the madness at the end. Wow. How strange to wish for subtlety though, sometimes it’s just not required or fitting.
There was just enough story, the competitive animosity between the two men to hold it all together, I think. And the wedding feast planning was hilarious, as was the chicken curry cooking in the dark.
This masculine chaos and the scene with the women cooking tapioca made me me think about this essay I just read by on of my favourite authors.
Click to access leguin.pdf
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