Movie Review — Palthu Janwar (Domestic Animal) — Sangeet P Rajan
Animal lovers, rejoice!
It is an untold rare story that celebrates love for animals, at least unseen in Malayalam movies till date. It is not a Disney type movie with anthropomorphic jokes for laughter or entertainment. It is surprising, coming from Kerala, which has a large meat-eating population in an otherwise vegetarian India. Also, the movie shows no political overtones where many a movie maker has succumbed to the perfunctory reference to beef curry to give a nod to their political affiliations to whoever they are presumed to be catering.
The movie takes you to a refreshingly beautiful place in the northern most part of Kerala — Kannur/Iritty. There are many celebrated and naturally beautiful but cloyingly annoying movie locations in Kerala repeated in umpteen movies just for the scenery. But this place adds a great dimension and depth to the movie (similar to Bharathan’s Thazhvaram or Amaram where location plays very much a central character). In that respect, this movie is a world class film similar to the ones from great Iranian directors like Ashgar Farhadi who captures the beauty of desert in Hero or Three Faces of Jaffer Panahi or Sheltering Sky of Bertolucci. The remote and hilly location of this movie and the people isolated takes the audience to a different dimension.
One of the hallmarks of great movies is — it can take to you a different world by eliminating all unnecessary distractions, which this movie does totally. Prasoon (Basil Thomas) is an animal inspector who is forced to take up this job due to his financial troubles and end up in this remote hill top village . It is a world unto itself with a motley set of village characters — a panchayat member who cannot avoid drinking but has silky smooth tongue of a politician who makes false promises to please(even to his family members), a local priest that tries to prey on his parish with his black magic, a veterinary doctor(Prasoon’s boss) whose main business interest is in a money pyramid scheme, and many more strong characters that are positioned in this story — the protagonists of the animals that are purported to be serving the animals, a farmer who loves his cow like a family member, a butcher waiting for animals to die. The brilliance of the movie is rooting all these characters in real by showing them as complete humans — all good at heart, but playing their manipulative ways to survive in this place. Hence the universal appeal of this movie — all the characters are relatable to any setting, any society.
Prasoon is thrown into the mix of village politics with the government veterinary hospital acting as the central hub of the remote rural land where animal husbandry is the main occupation. Davis (Johny Antony) is waiting forever for government funds yet to be sanctioned by the veterinary hospital for a cow shed for his beloved cow. From the first week itself, Prasoon becomes the scapegoat for all that ails the system. He is disinterested in the job he finds himself does not help either. The story takes us through Prasoon’s reluctant journey where everything that happens seem to be conspiring against him. Prasoon tries to escape from the place as his passion is elsewhere — animation, but due to his debts from his unsuccessful past ventures, he has no respite. Given no choices, he tries to reassure himself to make an effort to stick to the job, but still his struggles at work are loaded against him. His transformation is a journey that is worth watching!
Movie is blessed with strong characters, and the acting is just superb. Indrans as the politician is perfect as an unassuming but silky smooth tongued politician. Shammi Thilakan as the evangelist of the money-chain pyramid scheme believer and seller is electrifying (reminds one as the tele-evangelist character Fahad Fazil portrayed in Trance!). Dileesh Pothen as the priest that preys on his laity is very convincing as usual. Johny Antony as the loving caretaker of the cow is the character everyone would root for. Then there is the protagonist — the hero — acted superbly by Basil, who the audience will identify the most with. The story is so well wrote and directed that we are all transformed to be animal lovers in the end!
Poojyam Movie Score : 98/100
Storytelling : 10/10
Brilliant. The unfolding of the story is perfect.
Direction : 10/10
Kudos for keeping the focus on the main elements of the story, and there is not a single dialogue that is wasted or out of place. Extra mark for giving space for butcher without any over explanation for what is life is all about.
Cinematography: 10/10
The rural hill village is captured in essence without any embellishments. The brilliant acting of the central characters’ facial expressions are caught at the right moments. The bike that falls on its own on the hill slope is just perfect. It is a brilliant prelude to the cow that is fallen on the godforsaken hills about to unravel. Also, the image of a horse with two legs in air following the shot of the travails of the police dog is also brilliant.
Theme: 10/10
Animals deserve love. It is not a common theme seen in movies. Kudos!
Acting: 10/10
Just brilliant acting — all around. Even the four legged animals — dog, cow!
Music: 9/10
Background music in non-intrusive which is perfect, the song at the credits was a nice surprise!
Ending: 9/10
A cinematic ending with the hero’s successful transformation.
Social Canvas: 10/10
Humans and their relationship with farm animals in rural villages captured in its true essence.
Creativity: 10/10
The placement of the story, and the characters, and penning the dialogue without preaching in any way is one big achievement. Simple is hard!
Memorable Impact: 10/10
The theme is novel and this forces one to look at animals in a new light.
