A Duel to Remember

To be relevant you have to play in the big leagues. Be out on the frontlines, not buried in the back trenches. Innovate, not imitate. Otherwise, you are condemned to be bottom feeders, staying stuck as takers not makers.

In a recent interview, a big league player, the retail magnate M. A. Yousuf Ali, put it plainly. Speaking of students from Kerala studying in China he asked, “Why are we sending our students to China? Why don’t we have world class universities like Oxford or Cambridge right here in Kerala? We could build them in our beautiful mountains.” Clearly, he nailed both the idea and the venue.

While I would have picked MIT or Stanford as the examples to rival, his point illustrates what I was struggling to say. Kerala has the potential to be in the big leagues. This remains unrealized but signs are visible.

(Photo Credit: filmibeat.com)

The 2020 Malayalam movie Ayyappanuam Koshiyum (AK) is a big leaguer. It grips you from the get-go with a pleasingly picturized car journey winding through the mountains echoing with the rhythms of tribal music. Take a deep breath because that’s about the only moment of peace you will get. A police squad stops the car for a routine search. The driver volunteers unrequested information. That careless slip triggers an unpredictable confrontation. The confrontation erupts into a battle. The battle escalates into all out war. The driver’s lapse is but one early moment when normality appears imminent. Those hopes are immediately dashed. The artists behind this creation are relentless and unforgiving, upping the ante after every lull. As the movie careens toward a duel for the ages, you are on the edge of your seat frightened by the pounding of your heart. It's an extraordinary production.

Before another word, a disclosure: I am not qualified to write a movie review in any conventional sense. I haven’t watched a whole lot of movies. My tastes are plain: I enjoy Nolan’s Batman trilogy, Starwars saga (until the recent disappointments), any X-Men movie with Logan, MCU. Godfather is my all-time favorite. Does that make me qualified? Oru Vadakkan Veera Gatha is unparalleled. Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum shocked me by its originality and is my recent favorite. Then along comes AK.

(Photo Credit: manoramaonline.com)

The story is subtly epical. The villain is an intruder, privileged in power, influence, and wealth. He’s itching for a battle as if to prove something. What impels him, what he yearns for, soon becomes clear. To win the throne, he needs a victory that has eluded him in his 38 years. But if history is any lesson, wanting something is not a solid ground to get a good footing—you will see this in the end. His equivocal conviction is his undoing.

A Reluctant Hero (Photo Credit: rediff.com)

Our hero is past his prime. He suppressed his battle-hardened past and ably did what society asked him to do—he became a meritorious police officer. When an outsider rampages through his land, he attempts peace but is paid back with treachery. In a pivotal scene, he makes his case clear. This intruder has to be stopped. If he wins here, he will run amok through other lands. It's now or never. There’s no turning back. His purpose is his strength.

The writer/director gives additional clues about the hero's motivation. Heros' wife, with a child on her lap, urges him to vanquish the bully. She's had enough of such thugs from the valley. Left to her own devices, she would have fought the battle herself. The young and sprightly police assistant puts his job on the line by standing up for the hero. The story unfolds in Attapadi, a tribal land with a history of grave injustice wreaked on the poor by the powerful and the corrupt.

A telling scene further hints at the historical sweep of the story. The hero is suspended from his job. Villagers gather in a show of support. The villain arrives to savor the fruit of his treachery. And then there is the corrupt local chieftain who switches to the villain's side to strike the hero when he is down. The villain accepts the unexpected help while barely able to suppress contempt for this turncoat. Those who are aware of a bit of colonial history wouldn't miss the parallel.

The battle lines are drawn. Listen to the beautifully composed transitional music. You can hear the beat of martial drums. The war has begun. The force of the hero’s single-minded pursuit explodes in full fury. In a shocking scene, the hero exposes the betraying chieftain’s bravado as nothing but a house of cards. As you try to comprehend what you just saw unfold, the hero heads to confront the goons sent to protect the villain by his domineering father. He drives to their quarters, parks his motorbike, steps on it to get on top of a jeep parked next. From there he vaults to the 2nd floor. The thugs assembled there to defend the villain are dumbfounded by this display of fearless determination. Before they realize what the heck happened, the hero beats the hell out of them and dumps them over the balcony. The scene is on par with the spellbinding scene in The Dark Knight Rises where Batman makes the leap of his life to escape out of the underground prison. This is cool stuff.

The Creators (Photo Credit: hungama.com)

The artists in this endeavor—the director, writer, actors, musicians, cameraman, the charming tribal singer—have come together in just the right way to deliver this stunner. In a remarkable feat of painstaking labor, attention to detail, and coordination, they all seem to have peaked at the same time. The end product is genuine, authentic, and completely satisfying. If there are any uncompromised movie awards left, be assured, AK is set for a clean sweep. So go watch Ayyappanum Koshiyum. If you have, watch it again. It's a duel to remember.

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