Sanal Kumar Sasidharan’s ‘Ozhivudivasathe Kali’ — Malayalam cinema’s finest specimen

In the opening shot, the camera rests, amid a tangle of bushes, gazing at two friends having a drink near a rivulet by the side of a road. They are soon joined by two others who arrive by a bike. You can’t really hear their conversation clearly as the camera is conspicuously at a distance. But you can hear murmurs — of ‘army liquor’ and the overbearing shadow of a ‘by-election campaign.’ Soon, the fifth friend arrives — ‘Thirumeni’ — by a car. Glasses of liquor are passed around and cigarettes are smoked as the five friends indulge in the most natural of banter, often their voices so weak that you can’t hear. And you wonder whether it’s intentional. Without further delay, the five men hatch a plan — to go off to a place, a bit far away from the town — where they could drink, smoke and make merry in peace.
Sanal Kumar Sasidharan’s thrilling ‘Ozhivudivasathe Kali’ (translated from Malayalam as ‘Off-day Game’) begins on that note as the five friends — Dharman, Dasan, Ashokan, Thirumeni and Vinayan — go off to a secluded place (a resort of sorts if you will) in the middle of a forest for a booze party. You would think that five Malayali men drinking, toasting and discussing politics is the most banal of situations. But you will soon realize why that’s not. In the company of noisy crickets, a security guard and a woman, employed as a cook, the five men spend time at the resort, first rollicking around in a pond, plucking jackfruits and then swaying and wobbling (on alcohol effect) their way to the room. So far, harmless, right?
But then the conversations over liquor begin to take a darker tone. Over plates of freshly-cooked chicken, whose merciless killing deserves a side-story (for another day, perhaps) and chakka puzhukku (jackfruit gravy), talks commence on politics, slowly disintegrating into arguments over ‘democratic rights of women’ and what true ‘masculinity’ is. In between all this, some men, clearly aroused by the lone woman in their surroundings, attempt to woo her.
The faces of the five men, who for the large part of the film were never clearly shown, now are prominently plastered as their inner demons spring out. The camera is no longer lurking at a distance. It is moving and snaking its way around the room, scanning the five men as they bicker among themselves. As with every drunken conversation, sexist and inappropriate jokes are thrown about casually. Casteist slurs, mostly aimed at Dasan, who’s dark in complexion, are also made as the five men forget momentarily that they are friends and heap insults at one another. The film paces forward with a constant feeling of danger around the corner. Things start going downhill when the men decide to play a game.
It sounds innocuous at the outset, a simple game that we have all played in our childhood. But that such a harmless game, played by a set of close friends, could quickly descend into a horrifying state of affairs is never contemplated. In the final moments, the camera scampers around, moving through the room and trying to ascertain the reality of what had just happened. The setting is calm, but the horror is real.
‘Ozhivudivasathe Kali’ excels at bringing to the surface all the infirmities of the Kerala society, be it that of caste, women subjugation, corruption or just pure authoritarianism. Through the film, made with a modest budget of Rs 20 lakhs and boasting no star cast whatsoever, Sasidharan has attempted to carve out a piece of the Malayali male mind — his thoughts, his overpowering gaze, his insecurities and his shocking descent into madness when alcohol takes control of his body. But can we blame this purely on alcohol? Sasidharan begs us to ponder.
The film, based on Unni R’s story, was first screened at the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK)in 2015 and was swept into theatres last year with screaming positive reviews. It is a fitting commentary on so many social problems, narrated in a fashion I have seen few filmmakers achieve. The actors, some of whom have never appeared before the camera, are brilliant too with their roles played out so effortlessly, the dialogues, never for a minute, mechanical. The final scene plays out uninterruptly for almost 48 minutes without a cut.
Go watch this film, now available on Netflix, because it is stinging, repulsive and scathing, without appearing so. Try all you can, you wont be able to wish it away.
