Day: October 29, 2012

Vertigo in Southern India: LFM Reviews Akam (Palas in Bloom) @ The 2012 South Asian International Film Festival

By Joe Bendel. They are known as Yakshis in southern India, but we would think of them as succubi. Every culture has their equivalent, but one architect fears he married one. Yet, his perception of reality may or may not be so reliable in Shalini Usha Nair’s Akam (Palas in Bloom; trailer here), which screened at the 2012 South Asian International Film Festival in New York.

Srinivas seemed to have his life laid out perfectly, until an accident left the young architect visibly disfigured. Abandoned by his girlfriend, he descends into a deep existential depression. It is only the chance late night meeting with a mysterious woman that snaps him out of his lethargy. Just what Ragini was doing at his construction site at that hour is a question that will bother Srinivas in months to come, but it concerns him little during their brief courtship.

For a while everything is great, and then just as suddenly things are terrible again. Srinivas finds himself besieged by minor misfortunes and ailments that he is convinced Ragini has caused. He is convinced she is a Yakshi, who seduced him in order to torment and eventually murder him, because that is what Yakshis do.

If Ragini is a Yakshi, Nair isn’t telling. There is evidence in the film to support either conclusion, but none of it is trustworthy, because of the manner in which Srinivas’s obviously warped POV skews the film’s narrative. Indeed, Akam’s open-endedness clearly gave some SAIFF patrons fits, just as Nair intended.

Loosely based on Malayattoor Ramakrishnan’s novel Yakshi, Akam could have featured a spot of gore here and there, but Nair elected to keep it off-screen – which will further frustrate genre fans. That simply is not the tradition the film flows out of. However, there are enough hat-tips to Vertigo to inspire an angry missive from Kim Novak. Present day Kerala might seem worlds and centuries removed from Puritan New England, but Srinivas could almost be considered a Malayalam Hawthorne character, whose outward disfigurement corresponds to a spiritual disfigurement. The real horror of his story is the uncertainty over whether he is the victim or the tormentor, much like a Goodman Brown.

From "Akam."

As Srinivas, Fahadh Faasil vividly portrays a man plagued by inner demons and insecurities, while Anumol K’s Ragini certainly suggests a woman with closely guarded secrets. Freed from traditional genre demands, Nair’s pacing is decidedly patient. Unfortunately, the frequent flashbacks are not well delineated from the present day, often causing viewer confusion. Yet, her sparing use of sound, and the film’s overwhelming sense of darkness and stillness are unusually effective. Akam has a genuinely foreboding atmosphere that makes the ambiguous gamesmanship possible.

This is definitely not Bollywood. Technically it is Mollywood, but do not expect any Malayalam musical numbers. While the austerity of Nair’s style is demanding at times, the overall vibe really gets under your skin. Though not perfect, this is a film more festival programmers ought to consider. Recommended for cineastes who have a taste for the macabre but prefer mood over mayhem, Akam is set to have a limited Indian release this November.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on October 29th, 2012 at 1:36pm.

India’s Red Corridor: LFM Reviews Chakravyuh @ The 2012 South Asian International Film Festival

By Joe Bendel. Welcome to India’s “Red Corridor.” While referring to the ideology of the militant Naxalite-Maoists who exercise de-facto governing authority in some of the country’s poorest provinces, it applies just as readily to the blood they shed to maintain their power. However, one ambitious policeman is determined to reestablish law and order in Prakash Jha’s Chakravyuh, a selection of the 2012 South Asian International Film Festival, co-starring Bollywood legend Kabir Bedi, who participated in a special intimate on-stage conversation at the Helen Mills Theater this past weekend.

SP Adil Khan is so by-the-book, he must be headed for a fall. He is in for a rude awakening when he accepts his newest posting, replacing a fallen friend and colleague in the Red Corridor. Just like his predecessor, Khan is lured into an ambush by false Naxalite informants. At least Khan lives to tell the tale and change tactics. Unlike his colleagues, Khan tries to win over the poor villagers’ hearts and minds, but whenever one reaches out to the copper, they are publicly executed by the ruthless Rajan. It looks bad for the home team until Khan’s academy drop-out buddy, Kabir, volunteers to go undercover. With no formal ties to the cops, he is the only one with a puncher’s chance of surviving the vetting process.

Rhea Menon in "Chakravyuh."

Thanks to their cover story, Kabir fits in with the Naxalites rather easily. He feeds Khan breakthrough intel, turning the tide against the Maoists. Yet, as Kabir starts to go proletarian, Khan realizes he may have made a mistake sending an impressionable hothead prone to snap decision-making on a sensitive infiltration mission.

This film would give Debbie Schlussel a conniption fit. Basically, it features the Muslim cop Khan (the only character whose religion is expressly identified, at least to western eyes) waging war against an increasingly sympathetic terrorist cult. Indeed, Chakravyuh is problematic in multiple ways, but also fascinating in much the same manner as the best Soviet propaganda films. There is no doubt that India’s rural poor have a hard lot in life, but it is pretty clear by now that the shining path offers no salvation. Perversely, Kabir and Rajan spend most of the film fighting the steel plant Kabir Bedi’s evil industrialist is trying to build, doing nothing to increase local employment opportunities.

Obviously, the irony of China allegedly supporting the Naxalites – while explicitly repudiating the Maoist excesses of the Cultural Revolution – is an irony lost on director Jha. At least he can stage rousing gun battles and spectacular massacres. Jha also integrates the musical numbers into the action in a manner that is more organic than one might expect. Yes, this is most definitely Bollywood.

Jha gets a critical assist from Arjun Rampal, who is an appropriately forceful presence as Khan. Had Jha belived in his mission, Rampal’s Khan might have joined The Raid’s Iko Uwais as the second great Muslim action hero of the year. Unfortunately, we are clearly meant to identify more with Abhay Deol’s Kabir, but his brooding is more petulant than Byronic. Still, Chakravyuh has the beautiful and well-armed Esha Gupta as Khan’s fiancée and comrade, Rhea Menon. SAIFF special guest Kabir Bedi also chews the scenery in a manner befitting a former bond villain (the lethal Gobinda in Octopussy).

Chakravyuh is simplistic and didactic, but it is never dull. Suitable for action fans who are able to discern and discount propaganda and dogma, Chakravyuh is now playing at the AMC Loews Newport Centre in Jersey City, following its North American premiere at the 2012 SAIFF.

Posted on October 29th, 2012 at 1:35pm.