Director: Sangeeth P. Rajan
Cast: Johny Antony, Basil Joseph, Dileesh Pothan
Writers: Aneesh Anjali, Vinoy Thomas
Two goodbyes happen in Palthu Janwar (Domestic Animal), directed by Sangeeth P Rajan and produced by the golden triumvirate of Dileesh Pothan, Syam Pushkaran, and Fahadh Faasil. The first moment is subdued. Prasoon (Basil Joseph) is leaving his urban home in the dawn, bidding a quick and almost cold farewell to his family. Bitterness is obvious. There seems to be an unfinished living room conversation smouldering between them. A similar goodbye, hurried and laden with unresolved tension, happens again in the film. But this time, before Prasoon can flee the scene, life throws him back to the field of action, demanding closure.
The title Palthu Janwar is a funny nod to the rustic relationship the humble Malayali shares with the Hindi language. The setting is a North Kerala village where the forces of Indian complex democracy rule the roost using the techniques of theatre. The panchayat member (Indrans) can switch in and out of tears like a veteran artist, masterfully steering his audience into his lies. The priest at the local church (Dileesh Pothan), who prescribes black magic in small doses for every problem big and small the parishioners face, conducts his prayers like a thespian, shaking, hopping, and dancing a little as he chants the verses.
The film proceeds from the point of view of Prasoon, the village’s newly-appointed livestock inspector. It is a job he had to take up against his will. He navigates the new life half-heartedly, repeatedly falling victim to the nasty working arrangement ﹣ a theatre of lies ﹣devised by the men who act as the village’s managers. His best friend, Stephy (Sruthi), his classmate at the veterinary college, who sees in him something no one else does, stands by him through thick and thin.
The narrative is immaculately edited, holding a rhythm so soft, in sync with the village’s everyday life. When a burglary happens in the church, you might expect a shift in genre and pace. But the narrative pedals back to Prasoon and his animals, and the bureaucratic and emotional conflicts that turn his days into nightmares. The camera (cinematographer Renadive) never interferes but watches, like a monkish fly on the wall.
Sangeeth does not restrict his attention to the village’s male population and their antics. You see a tree set on fire by a lightning bolt. A figurine of little Jesus discarded under a tree by the side of a cemetery. In the end, they all point toward a prosaic piece of wisdom. The tree becomes an omen. The little Christ comes alive at the end, on a mountain top under the stars, whose arrival moves to tears even the most unscrupulous of men. If Maheshinte Prathikaram (2017), directed by Dileesh Pothan, had a narrative that looked like a fascinating path to the unknown – while we knew Mahesh would avenge his assaulter, who knew revenge would turn him into a sweeter person?! – the world of Palthu Janwar, as the narrative proceeds, narrows down to a dot.
There is something about childbirth that men find infinitely intriguing. In Rajkumar Hirani’s 3 Idiots (2009), different types of men ﹣ intelligent, cowardly and the ordinary﹣unite and celebrate when they successfully help a pregnant woman deliver the child. They stare into her lower body and work on it like scientists examining a piece of the universe’s wonder. It is not unusual for our mainstream cinema to feature the woman as a cow ﹣a domestic animal whose identity is solely tied to her body.
Palthu Janwar has a little of both worlds. Men who fought all their life over material and power find a common purpose when a female body goes into labour. Women are excluded from this space of collective triumph. But in the end, from the cliched parade of triumphant male faces, the film shifts to the mother, and a lullaby fills the air, pushing the men into the background. A beautiful shot of another female body, unpolished and uninhibited, appears next, blurring the men further.
Something similar happens in an earlier scene. When an elderly farmer (Johny Antony in a gorgeous role) is asked to bring a “friend”, he hesitates. Not only because it is an unusual term in his surroundings, but also because he does not have many allies. But then, the film makes a heartwarming and surprising cut, to the face of a woman, the only person who would run up a hill like a mountain goat to his rescue. Jaya S Kurup is a revelation in the role, perhaps the best actor in the whole lot.
There are several fantastic performances in this film. Shammi Thilakan and Indrans, two veteran actors, play to their strengths. Mathews (played by Kiran Peethambaran), the compounder at the veterinary hospital, who possesses a nearly pathological sincerity to the job, is terrific.
Basil Joseph is on his way to becoming the master of plainness. His ability to merge into his surroundings, and his lack of apparent gifts, make for searing stories in the hands of fine filmmakers. In Joji, Dileesh Pothan’s Covid-time drama, he played a short-tempered pastor who, despite the power he wields, comes across as a boring man who cannot see beyond his nose. In Jaan-E-Man, he brought down clinical depression from urban apartments and plush therapy couches to the streets, giving it a mundane face. In Palthu Janwar, Basil convinces you of Prasoon’s powerlessness. Even when he seethes on the phone and vows to destroy the enemies at the workplace, you refuse to believe his fury. Here is a guy built to be a subdued bystander in his own life.
Palthu Janwar’s convoluted finale finds an enemy in the butcher, a rather simplistic reduction, but what might stay longer with the viewer is the fuzzy, lifelike relationship between the young man who is desperate for a second chance in life and a village that grants him that.
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