Spoilers ahead…
Kunchacko Boban and Divya Prabha star in a story about people who do not have any kind of protection against the iron hand of an uncaring System.
The first stretch of Mahesh Narayanan’s Ariyippu is set in a glove-making factory in Noida. Reshmi (Divya Prabha) is testing gloves, and despite it being an assembly line, she seems to be alone. This is due to the framing. Reshmi is in the centre, in a vertical strip, and the parts to her left and right are blacked out – it’s like Cinemascope, but in a vertical format. A little later, we see why Reshmi has been singled out this way. The next sequence fills the whole screen, and it shows Reshmi and her husband Harish (Kunchako Boban) signing papers to get a visa to go someplace with better prospects. Harish works in the factory, too. They are migrant labourers, from Kerala, and they work in an environment that’s filled with the sounds of Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam.
You can read the rest of the review here:
https://www.galatta.com/malayalam/movie/review/ariyippu/
And you can watch the video review here:
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brangan
December 15, 2022
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JPhil
December 16, 2022
Sometimes – and I can’t put my finger on it -and maybe it’s cynical of me , I see Mahesh Narayanan somehow ‘ compose ‘ these stories with a view to manufacture what he thinks are great ‘ cinematic ‘ moments .
His style seems pretentious, the ‘realism’ fake, if that makes any sense .And not like the realism you see in Ray’s work or many Iranian masters . And as if the ‘ humanism’ is inserted merely to serve technique,unlike, say a Koreeda .
I don’t know if I’m making any sense , just to say :I was not moved , though I recognise the subtexts you speak of . I also didn’t recognise Boban’s craft – he scowled through the movie and his eyes never spoke- I couldn’t feel his angst .
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ravenus1
December 16, 2022
With films like Ariyippu, Nna thaan case kudu, Pada, Nayattu etc, Kunchako Boban looks to be silently stealing Fahad Faasil’s thunder as one of the maverick stars of hatke cinema.
#healthycompetition
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desp
December 26, 2022
B.R , You are definitely a better person than me if you saw Harish as just a desperate and vulnerable man, and not really a bad man.
I saw Harish as a horrible loser who made the sex tape all about his pain,and ego , completely ignoring and trivializing what the wife is going through. His “desperateness” makes him get violent and abusive with his wife . It isn’t a surprise that people doesn’t see the unfairness in which the female lead is being treated , because violence towards women/wives, oppression at home / workplace and misogyny have become so commonplace that it doesn’t even register anymore , neither does it make an impact.
It is funny too that the stupid men use women just as a tool to get back at and humiliate each other. Boban was so effective as the poor little “desperate man” that it was easy to hate him by the end of the movie. Happy that she decided to get out of his life forever , by the end of the movie.
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Sai Ashwin
January 2, 2023
Amazing film, very few false notes the biggest being the expo dump near the end by the Tamil mediator guy. It’s completely new information and comes out of nowhere, I felt it could have easily been fixed by planting it before. Just like how they did it with the truck driver character.
Also, loved the ambience and mood of the film, felt I was watching a documentary (this is a compliment unlike how mainstream filmmakers use it as a slur).
I also felt, Hareesh’s sexual act was something unnecessary or maybe I didn’t get the subtext.
He felt like a Shakespearen character like Othello or Macbeth but Boban and Mahesh never made it too dramatic.
Liking this new style from Mahesh Narayanan. Also, a bit disappointed that not many are talking about the film. Definitely one of the better films of the year.
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