Lijo Jose Pellisery’s new movie-‘#Churuli’- is in news for bad reasons rather than its intellectual or good sides. I watched the same in my private television after reading the negative comments about the abrasive language used throughout the movie. The censor board had given a clean ‘A’ certificate to the movie, of course, due to the language used by the characters in it. There is a huge uproar on the scurrilous language and ironically, the comments about the movie in facebook are more abusive than that of the movie!
I am not a big fan of #LJP branded movies but at the same time have no preconceived notion against those. As an average spectator of all kind of movies, I liked his “#AngamaliDairies” than his intellectually stimulated “#Jallikettu”. #Churuli’ is also made on intellectual pathway of ‘#Jellikettu’ and tried to depict the true colors of human mind which can be influenced by situations, places, people around them and are getting caught in those complicated vicious circles of life forever. It’s a magical loop, which can absorb everyone into its dark depth and then absolve them to a world without inhibitions and pretensions , looping them into infinity, by connecting with a myth. The story is plotted in an isolated high range mountain area, connected to the rest of the world through a bridge, where most of the residents are having spookiest criminal background and living with fake identities. The language of the movie is not polished and civilised like that of so called ‘normal’ society, where we all are supposedly living.
I am not getting into the intellectual side of the same, may be due to my intellectual pauperism. Some scenes in the movie, Shajeevan is getting the glimpse of flying fires, peeping into a mechanically moving thread wheels, jeep flying across the moon etc, had gone over my head and was not able to connect it with the story line. Its more of fantasy and magical realism as claimed by director. But I was able to connect to the language used by the characters in the movie and I think they can speak only in that language. Nothing else!
There is no need for this huge hue and cry over the language used in the movie and there is no need to shout out to ban the movie. We have no right to question the language or contents or visuals of a movie, I believe, but have all rights to avoid seeing /listening to the same, if it is disturbing us. The Movie came with a ‘A’ certification and starts with a clear message that the movie is restricted to those who are over 18 years of age. That does not mean that all those who are above 18 years must have to sit and watch the same!! By circulating the clips of the movie containing so called “bad word utterances” widely in public forums , few are secretly enjoying the same and making it accessible to the vulnerable. That’s the real crime!
The good, bad and ugly are very relative terms and it changes depending on the place, situation, mood and one’s social upbringing. What is good to one may be bad or ugly to others. As many of us are not familiar to the kind of language used in the movie or wilfully wearing a thin mask over our face to hide the true colors of it, we are reluctant to accept the same. There is no need to ban the movie or abuse the boldness of the artists who are behind it but all of us have the freedom to keep away from it, if it is a cultural shock.
Bijoy P Pulipra