One of many definitions given by the Cambridge Dictionary for the phrase “freedom” is “the state of not being in jail”. Nevertheless, its main which means is “the situation or proper of having the ability or allowed to do, say, assume, and many others. no matter you need to, with out being managed or restricted.” Contemplating these two definitions in tandem raises an intriguing query: what if somebody’s freedom is extra restricted within the exterior world and so they really feel extra free in jail? Does this make the idea of freedom subjective? Additionally, how lengthy can an individual stay silent earlier than retaliating as their freedom is more and more restricted? In such a situation, will the retaliation be peaceable or violent? Cinematographer-turned-director Venu’s psychological political drama Munnariyippu (Warning), starring Mammootty, explores these questions and dissects the psyche and lifetime of a middle-aged man, CK Raghavan, caught in such a quagmire.
“Dwelling in fixed concern may be very uninteresting. It would destroy our freedom. Whether or not a person or a lady, nobody ought to permit that to occur. Freedom depends upon our definition of it. My notion of freedom is perhaps completely different from yours. We might should weed out sure obstacles that stand in our method. Isn’t that what freedom is? When it happens at residence, it’s home violence; when it occurs in society, it’s revolution. Be it in Cuba or at residence, blood will spill throughout revolutions,” a drunk Raghavan tells a bunch of strangers in a bar.
When he was lastly granted freedom after spending 5 a long time in jail, Brooks Hatlen (James Whitmore) in director Frank Darabont’s The Shawshank Redemption (1994) couldn’t maintain it collectively for lengthy. “In right here, he’s an essential, educated man. Outdoors, he’s nothing,” says Ellis Boyd “Purple” Redding (Morgan Freeman), explaining how jail has institutionalised Brooks. For Brooks, jail was greater than only a place of confinement — it was the one house the place he felt a real sense of belonging.
We first see Raghavan as he stands quietly within the workplace of jail superintendent Rama Moorthy (Nedumudi Venu) who’s explaining to freelance journalist Anjali Arakkal (Aparna Gopinath), employed to ghostwrite his service story, a rehabilitation scheme he developed for prisoners launched after lengthy sentences. Convicted of double murder — his spouse and a Marwadi lady dwelling at his employer’s residence — Raghavan, nevertheless, turns into visibly disturbed when somebody refers to him as a assassin. “I haven’t killed anybody,” he tells Anjali when Moorthy steps out for a second.
Simply earlier than this second, we’re proven a scene that includes a celebration hosted by senior journalist KK (Prathap Pothan) for aspiring scribes. There, he declares German novelist Franz Kafka as one in all his favorite writers, with Josef Ok as his favorite Kafka character. Josef Ok is the protagonist of Kafka’s novel The Trial, which begins with the road, “Somebody will need to have been telling tales about Josef Ok, for one morning, with out having performed something incorrect, he was arrested.” It’s no coincidence that Venu and screenwriter Unni R positioned these two scenes in tandem, particularly since Munnariyippu, which launched 10 years in the past, is wealthy with metaphors, analogies, similes and imagery.
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In his cell, Raghavan has pinned two pictures on the wall — of the 2 folks he’s accused of killing. “Nobody has ever come to go to him, nor has he ever utilized for parole,” a cop tells Anjali, additional piquing her curiosity. “These partitions are humorous. First, you hate them; you then get used to them; sufficient time passes, you get so that you depend upon them,” Redding says about Brooks. After her first dialog with Raghavan, Anjali begins to really feel the identical about him too. Regardless of having served 20 years in jail — six years past his precise sentence — Raghavan speaks with a stunning calmness and that too in allegories and practically all the things he says has a number of layers of which means.
Though Raghavan has no proof to show his innocence, he’s unwavering in his perception that he’s not responsible. The mental depth within the issues he wrote down in his diary captures Anjali’s curiosity much more, main her to publish his story in a distinguished information journal. When the article good points recognition, she is obtainable the possibility to show it right into a ebook. Nevertheless, the sudden fame that follows disrupts Raghavan’s life in jail, resulting in his launch and successfully ending his prolonged keep there. This a part of Munnariyippu additionally critiques how fairly a number of journalists focus solely on producing “attention-grabbing” tales that may deliver them fame, with out contemplating the impression it will probably have on the individual(s) featured/mentioned of their work.
Newspaper clipping reporting that CK Raghavan has been sentenced to life imprisonment for double murder. (Picture: Foolish Monks Mollywood/YT)
Even earlier than his launch, Anjali begins appearing as if she owns him, forbidding him from assembly a journalist from Delhi. On the similar time, she offers him (false) hope by promising to be there for him after his launch, simply to control him into writing for her.
Whereas Anjali resides in a luxurious house, she arranges for Raghavan to remain in a cramped single room in an previous constructing, situated removed from the primary areas of the town. Reaching the place requires navigating via a few slender alleys and climbing a precarious staircase. To Raghavan, the room appears to be “well-equipped,” because it features a mattress, a desk, a chair, a desk lamp and a wastebasket. When he mentions this to Anjali, she shamelessly says, “How might you be given a room with out these amenities?” But, a fast go searching makes it clear that the room is simply a bit higher than his jail cell, reflecting how she seeks to take advantage of him, believing that an ex-convict deserves not more than the naked minimal.
Mammootty and Aparna Gopinath in Munnariyippu. (Picture: Foolish Monks Mollywood/YT)
Though she is a author herself, Anjali tells Raghavan they’ll simply meet the deadline since he “has no different job and simply wants to take a seat and write,” as if it have been a mechanical activity. Nevertheless, when Raghavan realises he has to put in writing his personal life story, his manner and physique language shift, displaying indicators of rigidity and unease. Anjali, nevertheless, both doesn’t discover this modification or just doesn’t care.
Every time she leaves, Anjali instructs Raghavan to shut the door, confining him to the room, the place he’s anticipated to do one thing towards his will. In jail, he feels merely confined, with no expectation to have interaction in something he doesn’t need to. In distinction, right here he feels remoted, with nobody to even speak to. Even KP Anil Kumar (Minon), the younger boy from the lodge who brings his meals, is at all times busy. Right here, Venu, who additionally dealt with Munnariyippu’s cinematography, regularly frames Raghavan via the bars of his window, symbolising the jail he’s in.
Raghavan in his cramped single room in an previous constructing. (Picture: Foolish Monks Mollywood/YT)
Anjali’s remedy of Raghavan turns into much more evident throughout her assembly with the senior administration of the publishing home. When the boss advises her to make sure nobody has entry to Raghavan, Anjali confidently replies, “I’m fairly sure nobody can. He’s secure in my custody.”
Nevertheless, her plans begin to backfire as Raghavan repeatedly fails to start writing, arising with a brand new excuse every time. Although she tries to steer him, he continues to fail. When Anjali realises he isn’t writing, her angle towards him adjustments. She tries to even emotionally manipulate him, expressing disappointment that he isn’t making an attempt. On the similar time, she additionally begins to deal with him with indifference, as he’s unable to supply the service/product she compelled upon him. Even the best way she enters his room adjustments; she now opens the door with a bang.
At some point, when Anjali visits Raghavan’s room and finds him lacking, she turns into agitated and irritated, considering it unacceptable for him to concentrate on something aside from writing for her. This response highlights her elitist, feudalistic and authoritarian angle.
Venu additionally doesn’t overlook to supply extra on Raghavan’s character past his interactions with Anjali. Throughout their outing, it’s revealed that Raghavan has no cash and solely Anil does, mockingly. Raghavan can also be proven changing into visibly tense upon encountering an aged, seemingly Marwari, couple who is perhaps related to the lady he’s accused of murdering.
Anjali’s plans begin to backfire as Raghavan repeatedly fails to start writing, arising with a brand new excuse every time. (Picture: Foolish Monks Mollywood/YT)
The film additionally critiques the sector of journalism and in a single scene, KK is seen lecturing Anjali about skilled ethics instantly after having made a misogynistic touch upon feminine journalists, which clearly highlights a typical old-school, elitist media big mentality.
Munnariyippu provides a political and financial dimension too to its narrative when Chacko (Prithviraj Sukumaran) comes to satisfy Anjali as a potential groom. Apparently, Chacko works in, of all of the locations on the planet, the US, identified for its capitalist economic system and supremacist tendencies of an enormous inhabitants. Anjali shortly agrees to marry him and it’s later talked about in passing that she is going to transfer to the US after marriage. Intriguing, isn’t it?
Aparna Gopinath as freelance journalist Anjali Arakkal in Munnariyippu. (Picture: Foolish Monks Mollywood/YT)
Anjali’s remedy of Raghavan turns into more and more disrespectful and she or he even means that she is doing him a favour by offering him with the room and protecting his bills. After the Delhi journalist tracks Raghavan down and meets him, Anjali strikes him to an much more dilapidated home, farther away, with no different homes close by. At this level, Raghavan’s manner begins to alter. As Anjali leaves him on the new location, he smirks oddly. Later, he’s proven taking a stroll exterior, choosing up an iron rod, analyzing it after which throwing it away.
On the ultimate day of their contract, realising she can’t meet the deadline or make Raghavan write, Anjali comes to satisfy him and there, mocks him and the diary entries that originally attracted her. However he doesn’t reply and continues to only take a look at her, smiling, and that too an eerie smile with a shade of dedication. He fingers her a set of papers along with his writings and as she reads, he begins packing his stuff.
As she reads his account, Anjali grows more and more frightened, understanding the true nature of the individual she has been coping with and why he says, “I haven’t killed anybody,” and that it’s not as a result of he hasn’t dedicated against the law, however as a result of he doesn’t see himself as responsible. “You requested me the place I need to go now. I’ve determined. I’m returning to jail,” Raghavan says with a sinister smile earlier than hanging Anjali on the pinnacle with the iron rod. Unsettingly, he wears the identical red-checkered shirt he wore on the day of his launch right here too. The following scene reveals him sleeping peacefully in his cell, now with three pictures on the wall: his spouse, the lady and Anjali. Fascinatingly, in Munnariyippu, there isn’t a crime or punishment — solely freedom and the implications of depriving somebody of it.
Considerably earlier than Munnariyippu delves into the core of its plot, Venu masterfully encapsulates the movie’s theme with a hanging shot that includes a quote by famend poet and novelist Sylvia Plath: “I want the issues which can destroy me ultimately,” reflecting how Anjali’s want to get Raghavan to pour his life into phrases and thereby acquire fame, in the end results in her tragic demise.
Mammootty’s excellent efficiency, which subtly however successfully reveals the complicated layers and nuances of Raghavan, together with the shades of gray in him, is unquestionably a significant cause Munnariyippu stays memorable even after a decade. On the similar time, Munnariyippu‘s enduring impression can also be as a result of themes it explores and the best way Venu and Unni conceived and portrayed these huge matters in a minimalistic method. Bijibal’s music and Beena Paul’s enhancing too are equally good.
