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Nizhalkkuthu (2002)
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Overview
User Rating:
Release Date:
5 November 2003 (France) moreGenre:
DramaAwards:
7 wins moreUser Comments:
Counterflows to Modernity moreCast
(Credited cast) | Oduvil Unnikrishnan | ... | Kaliyappan the executioner |
| Sukumari | ... | Marakatam, his wife |
| Reeja | ... | Mallika, the younger daughter |
| Thara Kalyan | ... | Madhavy, the older daughter |
| Murali | ... | Vasu, Madhavy's Husband |
| Sivakumar | ... | Mallika's Lover |
| Narein | ... | Muthu, Kaliyappan's son (as Sunil) |
| Nedumudi Venu | ... | Jailer |
| Vijayaraghavan | ... | Jailer |
| Jagathi Sreekumar | ... | Maharajah's Officer |
| Indrans | ... | Barber |
| Kukku Parameshwaram | ... | Woman seeking treatment in Kaliyappan |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Add content advisory for parentsRuntime:
90 minLanguage:
MalayalamColor:
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*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
Adoor Gopalakrishnan's Nizhalkkuthu seems to be a story about a hangman and his dilemmas, but in actuality it offers an alternative to a modern understanding of the Indian state. As it is, this movie caters for local, south Indian tastes and political sensitivities, and has little to say for others. Gopalakrishnan offers an alternative reading of the Indian freedom struggle, as part of an endless 'Leela' (mythical play), in which some innocent person has to die in order to enable others to live. This victim is a victim of the Goddess, a necessary sacrifice.
When it comes to it, the hangman's son, a Gandhian, doesn't refuse to take over the hanging. This I feel, is the strongest statement made by this film: That India's freedom is not a break with the past, but the past renewing itself in a new cycle. The society depicted is 'purely Dravidian'; There are no obvious castes or pollution principles, and everyone are devoted only to Devi (although allusions to Krishna and Jesus are abundant, but probably, mostly unintended).
It is interesting to see a movie whose narrative isn't modern or post-modern, but, in a way, counter-modern, offering us Leela in place of Modernity (structure in place of teleology) as the anchor of the narrative.
There are some beautiful shots throughout the film showing Kerala's lush landscape, but they seem to have bored the audience around me. All in all, surprisingly political in its statement, an essential movie for Indiaphiles or post colonial academics, but perhaps not for the wide public.