In 1941, almost ¾ of a century ago from now, Orsen Welles the prodigious/quintessential Hollywood auteur of cinema, made a film called “Citizen Kane”, a cult classic film piece which is till date regarded as the best film ever made on general consensus.
The artistic influence of that film is simply unprecedented with everybody from Alfred Hitchcock to Martin Scorsese to David Fincher being in awe and wonderment of the film, often tagging it as the godfather of modern cinema and 20th century art meaning one of the handful of films to have influenced different nuances and techniques in films from all nooks and corners of the world and not just Hollywood alone. (It does have its share critics though prime one being Swedish mastermind Ingmar Bergman!)
Back in India, in a small town called Kerala, KG George, the once chairperson of the Kerala State Film Development Corporation, came up with his incisive homage to Citizen Kane with a story and characters that are paradoxically different from the original film yet one which resonates in abundance especially in terms of the art design and the narrative aspects, two often overlooked aspects of film-making which seems to have inherently stemmed from that Hollywood masterpiece only.
Like Kane, this is also a posthumous, investigative & near nourish approach on a peripheral level with an otherwise simple cum straightforward whodunit procedural gracing the silver screen, for once underlining that perennial Akira Kurasawa “Roshomon Effect” – different versions of the same story derived in the process of uncovering the truth – exploited into making mind blowing cinematic artichokes.
The set-up is ingenious with a seemingly inconsequential rural legend about an alcoholic Tabla (It’s a percussion instrument) artist “Aiyappan” (played by Bharath Gopi) who went missing. But when the police inspector “Eraly Jacob” played by Mammootty starts investigating the case by way of prima facie interrogations things get really, really, really creepy.
The events took place in a broadway-like stage play troop where the main characters stems from and the narrative is a simple straightforward setup-clean up interrogation big shot which unravels itself without any twist or turns.
The movie made in 1982 seems a bit dated in terms of technique for today’s times and I did get the feeling some of the songs were laced out in the screenplay for theatrical effect. But that doesn’t hinder the effect of its superbly written characters coming from Mr. George himself, especially Jacob Eraly played by Bharath Mammotty, whom I think is an unforgettable cop character in any motion picture for that matter, who investigates the whole deal in his own down to earth way.
There are three versions to every mystery:
My Version.
His Version & THE TRUTH – and Yavanika follows a sequential pattern of a storytelling format till it reaches a diabolical climax which is also the inevitable. Some may call it an abrupt ending but for me it’s a poignant, near profound piece of character development.
Watch “Yavanika” to know the power of storytelling in a film, for once it earned its rightful comparisons to a masterful Hollywood classic namely “Citizen Kane”.
Kane would say – I made no campaign promises to any audience (Remember that speech?) since this film demands a recommendation on its own by way of default. It isn’t merely good… It is simply spellbinding..!!!