It has taken me six years for reviewing a favourite director’s movie, but it is not my fault to see it only yesterday. ’Nizhalkuthu’ by Adoor Gopalakrishnan is yet another creation from the Master, and the plot he has chosen now is rather different material. The protagonist is an Arachar, an executioner in the last days of the Travancore Kingdom, ie. 40s of the last century. For hanging an accused, he and his family are taken care by the Kingdom, as it is a selected duty for the Arachar family and now Kaliyappan is the man on duty.
He has become old filled with the guilt of killing strangers. He simmers himself in arrack. People believe he has a special power and he is blessed by the deity Kali. The rope that has been used to hang the accused hangs in his puja room.
The ash of the bits of this rope is believed to have special powers for healing the sick and mentally ills possessed by ghosts. His son is a khadi clad freedom fighter and daughter a school going girl who has stopped, just because she has attained puberty. Kaliappan is always in a doomed mood, as if he is sick. One day the King’s messenger reaches him with an order of executing an accused. Kaliappan is reluctant. He has excuses like bad health etc. But nobody is bothered to listen.
He goes through strict penance for the day. Regular baths and pujas continue. The existing rope diminishes in size to become ash for the sufferers. The play of the God is like this; A new rope is going to arrive. Yes, the prisoners in the jail are busy preparing this special rope. The weights are tested, the railings in the cell are oiled. And Kaliappan is made to stay awake, on the particular night as is the custom. But alas, he is heavily drunk and sleepy and to prevent him from falling asleep a story is narrated by the jailor.
It is a story of an innocent hanged while the culprit escapes, and Kaliappan visualises the characters as his own family members. He is highly disturbed thinking of hanging another innocent, and falls flat. His son who is accompanying him is made to execute the order, and the irony is as a Gandhian he has been always against capital punishment and liquor and on this fateful day he is defeated.
Adoor has taken a peculiar subject for this film. The guilt consciousness of Arachar is well brought out through various visuals. Even the palm leaves fluttering in the wind has something to say. The various characters too contribute to the mellowing of the screenplay. Oduvil Unnikrishnan, who recently died plays Kaliappan with an unusual style. A popular comedy actor should have guts to perform this role, and he has succeeded in it. Sukumari plays his wife and Narein and Mallika play their children. Popular actors like Nedumudi, Jagathi and Murali too have small but significant roles to play.
Cinematography by Adoor regular Mankada Raviverma and Sunny Joseph is marvellous in bringing out the moods of the main characters. The locale is the beautiful Kanyakumari District, a part of the erstwhile Travancore State, but never have the cinematographers tried to romanticise the shots. Maestro Ilayaraja has joined hands with Adoor for the first time and he has done a wonderful job with excellent bgm and selected silence in most of the scenes.
Among all the Adoor films I have seen I will give the lowest mark to this film, though it is of a high order compared with other people’s films. The main minus of the movie is the Tamil dialect spoken with a Kanyakumari flavour. Most of the players have not done justice to the dialect and the blame must go to the Tamil dialect advisors, Adoor has appointed for this film. And now I think how Kamal has done justice to this particular dialect in ’Dasavatharam’. I am waiting for the disc of ’Naalu PenkuttikaL’!