Paleri Manikyam

This movie by Renjith gets a grade of 7 out of 10. “What is the relevance of this now?” This question crops up in the second half and the reply starts with “It is a reminder…”
That nearly explains the purpose of the movie.

The movie is based on a book by T. P. Rajeevan (which I have not read) and is concerned with the brutal rape and murder (given away by the diffident subtitle Oru Pathira Kolapathakathinte Katha or Midnight Murder Story) of Manikyam, a young beautiful low-caste woman. This crime happens in a village called Paleri in 1957. And now, 52 years later, a detective obsessed with this unsolved mystery reopens the case.

Though the movie is supposed to be a detective story, the pieces of the puzzle fall too easily into place, and it might be more appropriate and fulfilling to view the movie without any expectation of suspense. In fact, the investigation is narrated just like a documentary.

This movie unfortunately has only one main actor: Mammootty in a triple role. As the detective, he does not have to do much. As the rich landowner and main suspect Ahmed Haji, he is wonderful. In fact, the director seems to have done very well in capturing the period of the crime rather than the present era. The same might be said of the screenplay which is mostly good. Surely, the crime analyst if not the extra-marital affair is superfluous. Sreenivasan and Siddique put in a cameo performance. The rest including Shweta Menon and Mythili try well and some if not most are convincing. The photography and sound are fine – maybe, the loud heart-thumping orchestra could have been replaced by something more subtle, edgy and diabolic.

To my favourite question: will I watch the movie again? Yes. There are lots to savour: a low caste woman watching her helpless husband being killed like you would stamp and kill a centipede; the killing of the young woman with the command “go and silence her”. It is ironical to hear the detective express a view about extra-marital affairs and infidelity “to possess that of another” and a villain exclaiming “why does she have to cross my path and raise all kinds of bad thoughts”.

As mentioned earlier, this movie is an apt reminder. Does it matter whether it is the 50’s or this millennium? The influence of power over the helpless and the weak, sex crimes, willful suppression of facts related to a crime and the list goes on. Déjà vu, right? It is tough not to echo the words in the movie “I do not have ideology nor faith.”

(N.B. The quotes might not be entirely correct – I had to recollect from memory and worse, I had to translate.)