Ee. Ma. Yau.

Until the last half an hour everything was happening as I expected from the synopsis. Even after that there wasn't anything that was surprising. But the small details that was given throughout that time elevates the last events into a whole different level. The script, performances, cinematography, music, direction, everything is top notch. The ending was when I was again reminded that this is a Pellissery film, so it have to be filled with symbolisms, a lot of which I am yet to completely understand.

Ee.Ma.Yau Lijo Jose Pellissery

What was the reason behind me to hunch back there in the seat while the end credit goes on the screen? Yes, I have that answer with me. It was the haunting, growling (not actually growling) and the echoing score of Prasanth Pillai frozen me at the end. It was not only the situation of mine but also to my friend who was next to me and I assume it is true to everyone who witnesses this great one from Lijo Jose Pellissery. Hence, Lijo once again amazed me with Ee.Ma.Yau. There was darkness everywhere. The darkness that sprout somewhere on the screen, fore-ground or background and even at the center also and I'm thinking why Lijo choose that kind of input to it. It is cleared to me that, the subject demands it. Ee.Ma.Yau, in one word is a distinct work of Lijo from his early ones. It deals with a simple topic which crafted and polished into a complex way that many of the filmmakers stand far away. This might be the reason for me to watch each and every film of Lijo so keenly and in detail. He proved again his sincerity and perseverance as a filmmaker. I'm not going to detail anything about the movie here, but I just want to point about the movie in accordance with the things that fascinates me. First of all it was the subject itself. Death is an important thing for films and many of other creative products. Somehow, it is a significant subject while we are talking about anything that matters in our life. Death has more and more attraction to many creators, that's why they love it. Ee.Ma.Yau also talks about Death. Actually it was surrounded by death. I have seen many critics points Ee.Ma.Yau shows some kind of resemblance to the movie Shavam which was hit on-screen many years ago but truly I don't know anything about it because I have not seen the movie Shavam. What I'm going to state here that while I went through each frame of Ee.Ma.Yau I got the feeling that I'm going through another movie similarly like this one, which is Shayanam. I'm not pointing that these two films have similarities, but something; I don't know, struck me every-time even though I'm writing this; which is about the film Shayanam. This might be my mistake because I went through Shayanam when I was around 15 or 16 years of age but the scenes from the movie haunts me now, actually. Shayanam was also about death. A person (the character was done by Babu Antony) who is insane for everyone, for the people who knows him, for the villagers and especially for the church. When he dies, the church authority decides him to cover him at the place near to the cemetery where the insane people gets covered. He was not allowed the public cemetery. When the film ends, that insane man derived as a Saint and people from other places crowded there to watch his dead body. What I'm written here was a vague picture that I recollect from my past but it is sure that Shayanam was about Death. Second thing which I was keen to talk about this film is its Lighting. I'm just distracted and conjured about the technique that Lijo (and especially Shyju Khalid, the Cinematographer) followed here for lighting. The thing is that first half of the film is happening during the night and Lijo doesn't use any artificial light through-out. It is a matter of wonder for me actually because it was sheer the courage of director to refuse all kind of artificiality in the film so that lighting favors and cements his idea of natural. The blinking tube-light symbolize it and especially the street lights also. The light from the incandescent bulb atop at the two men who is playing cards also resembles how we can use minimum light and get maximum result. Anyway 'Lightless' is the Lighting technique that followed by Lijo for the film. It is very hard to me to lie down each and every thing that haunts me in the film in numbers but lot of factors mixed in my mind while I'm talking about this. The Score, the acting, the setting all are matters to me when I'm talking. But I don't know how to point all these things and how to attribute it. Lijo, who is always debt from World films, has the caliber to deliver international stuffs like this. He showed and proved his ability through Amen, Angamaly Diaries etc. He is not a regional director as well. He is international as the caption says, 'Local is International'.

How often do we think about death? Our brushes with mortality are often when misfortune strikes loved ones or through books and movies. But while there have been great movies centred around grief and dying, one aspect that is sidelined to very simplistic projections is the funeral. Usually, in South Indian movies, you see a gathering where women are wailing and men standing sober faced around a body covered with a white sheet. This scene is often just a few minutes of the movie itself.

Ee. Ma. Yau is different. The entire movie is about the funeral - the messy affair of saying a final goodbye. A poor fisherman's son wants to bid goodbye to his late father with some dignity. But when death strikes suddenly, time is against you and you are poor, this is no easy ask, especially in a society where the distinction between private and public blurs - where rituals, religion, neighbours, corruption, bureaucracy, everything converge to hassle you before you can take even five minutes off to grieve. This is not your usual film that follows an arc - the one where problem strikes, hero suffers, he fights and then overcomes it all. This is more like a documentary on the sociology of death that pays attention to the details - how women grieve differently in front of different people, how a village with little to look forward to creates its own entertainment around death and the dynamics of power that is asserted by religion in times of crisis.

The movie in itself is a little boring - there, I said it. Because, as I mentioned, there is little plot; the genius is in the realism and attention to subtle, societal details. You need patience to sit through the first half, at least. But it does push one to think of the complexities around mortality. Towards the end, all at once, strong emotion hit me. And I did dream a thing or two about death for a few days.

Cheers to the most elaborate funeral in Indian Cinema!

In Ee. Ma. Yau lijo has once again built a place and a set of great characters, who feel grounded to the setting they are placed .With an ensemble cast , lijo has made a film which is rich in atmospherics and dark humor. Strong performances across the board and Shyju Khalid's beautiful night frames has elevated this films to be one of the best films to come out of the Malayalam film industry recently.