Bhayanakam: A Malayalam Movie by Jayaraj

Image : https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/04/Bhayanakam.jpg Bhayanakam: A movie about war without showing a single person's death or spilling a single drop of blood. The movie is based on Takazhi Shivsankara Pillai's novel "Coir".  It manages to show the hard and bitter truth about war. Seen from the kind eyes of a postman, who himself has been wounded in war knows the reality of this long altercation. The place where he comes to work after being unfit to fight anymore battles due to gun shot wound in his leg, which makes him dependent on his crutches, also gets him a job as a postman in Kuttanad, a village in Kerala. The time is just before second world war, the village has houses which can only be approached by boats and there are many people who till the land for others so their house address has no meaning, as they live on fields. Many young men from village have joined army for the much needed cash, which was not available to everyone during that point of time. The primary work of postman is to deliver the money order to these homes. Postman is seen as somebody, who gets the much needed cash. The postman is also seen doing his job with diligence by searching for everyone's house by taking his boat everywhere and asking for addressees from people working in far flung areas surrounded by water. He finds the residence in the house of Gowri Kunjamma, Whose both sons are in army. She saves every penny that her sons send to her. 

The news of second world war can be heard on the radio. Small children are curious about it. The army is in the village for recruitment and all the young men of the village want to be a part of it. The futility of the war and ravages of it, can be seen in postman's eyes. The posts have started pouring in about the deaths of people in the war. The postman is seen as someone bringing the bad news or a bearer of bad news now. It's interesting to observe the change in the attitude of the people, in a matter of days a person who was seen as good omen and who was also given space to sit and was invited to the homes for food, turns into a demon, a bad omen. Jayaraj has managed to make the viewer also feel this with the way the story moves.  

Few small instances depicted in the movie touched me deeply. The postman is seen coming by this villager, who is working in his field, he tells the postman to stop, without even wanting to find out who the postman is looking for. He comes to him and tells him that any news about his son, should not be brought to him, as he is happy to be living with this thought that his son is alive, even if far away, then to know that he is dead. The son is not at home anyways, so he might live with this comfort of him being alive somewhere, then the knowledge of death. He also does not care about the money sent to him and can easily survive without it by working himself, so no need for money order either. And after this short talk, he shares a smoke with the postman. The entire shot is very beautifully edited, I have used extra words to describe it but not the Director Jayaraj. Some of the postman's sharing of life with Gowri Kunjamma is very touching.  The inner struggle of the postman's as a bearer of bad news, is beautifully captured.

 The music and songs are effective and aptly carried out. I have been listening to them again and again and I know the words and the sound seems to grow on me. Amazing sounds imagined and brought to the fore for the movie by M. K. Arjunan.

Brilliant portrayal of post man by Ranji Panicker. Not even one expression by him is out of place or extra. Even the gait is maintained through out the film, it feels as if he is born with a wounded leg. Asha Sarath as Gowri Kunjamma is good but I found her very suave for this role. Her expressions are a little bit more balanced than the expected expressions from a person in her place. In any other movie, with a little bit more touch of urban or even current India, she would have been brilliant but I somehow could not really see her there. Nothing extra in costume or makeup, but just the entire disposability of a person in a certain space, is what I am talking about. The way she sits, her gaze, the tilt of her head, the way she stands against the support for her hut, is beautiful, actually picturesque; but seems to not belong there completely. Although in few scenes, her brilliance is shown through, like the time she is preparing warm water for bath or when she wants to hear her son's well being, but a little bit of rawness would have helped. The various people representing the villagers have done their role really well. 

The place is captured scenically by Nikhil S. Praveen, it's picturesque, but still real. Some of the stills are used very well to show the divided space of war where the sons of this land are, by using the peaceful image of the village they belong to. The beauty of the village makes the fate of these young men more stark, heightening the cruelty of present. Personally, I loved the rain in the movie. It just pours, again brilliant cinematography. The importance of living everyday, the birth of a child, the marriage in the house, the festivals are very very important when one lives within the community with shared believes and customs. I felt a sense of loss myself, of making a home far away from my home and suddenly bereft of these markers of living a community life. The new community is a made community, and is not a given community. Another thought through movie, is to experience monsoon downpour in Kerala, have been thinking about it after reading the book- Chasing the Monsoon, but seeing the rain in this movie cemented the thoughts.