Empuraan – Review

Revenge is an ancient theme in human narratives. Give a moral rationale for the revenge and make the antagonist look monstrously evil, then you have the material for a good work of art. Add to that some spices from contemporary politics and the recipe is quite right for a hit movie. This is what you get in the Malayalam movie, Empuraan, which is running full houses now despite the trenchant opposition to it from the emergent Hindutva forces in the state.

First of all, I fail to understand why so much brouhaha was hollered by the Hindutvans [let me coin that word for sheer convenience] who managed to get some 3 minutes censored from the 3-hour movie. The movie doesn’t make any explicit mention of any of the existing Hindutva political parties or other organisations. On the other hand, Allahu Akbar is shouted menacingly by Islamic terrorists, albeit towards the end.

True, the movie begins with an implicit reference to what happened in Gujarat in 2002 after the Godhra train burning. A burning train is shown as an opening montage. Then the movie begins with the title card reading India 2002. India, not Gujarat. The very first scene is that of a man getting into a half-closed shop to make a phone call to his family members about the riot that has started in the city. A vehicle stops outside the shop, a man with a rod enters and bludgeons the caller to death. We are given to understand that the victim is a Muslim and that the riot is against Muslims by Hindutvans. Then for over quarter of an hour there is killing of the Muslims who had taken shelter in a Hindu haveli. The Hindu woman who owns the haveli is also shot dead and treated as a traitor.

Then the plot moves to the present. The place changes to Kerala. But the plot has characters from all over the world, making the story quite international. Three different strands mingle in the plot. One, Kerala politics with a fissiparous Congress party and effete left; two, the monstrous right wing that spreads its wings from North India to Kerala, with the leader of the Hindutvan force above playing a big role, and gets the IUF [the alter ego of Congress] chief minister to switch allegiance; and three, an international crime syndicate which adds hitech sophistication to the movie.

All the three strands are unnervingly interrelated and the drama that unfolds is simply incredible. Incredible, first of all because it has no relation with anything that is happening in, or can happen in the near future of, Kerala. Secondly because the action jumps from India to Yemen to Iraq to anywhere in the world as randomly as the director’s whim carries it. Many of the places are very exotic for the action concerned. I particularly loved the action in Qaraquosh, known as ghost town, in Iraq. The first thing I did, after the movie was over, was to google the place. “Qaraquosh, a once-thriving Christian town in Iraq, became a ghost town after being ravaged by ISIS in 2014…” The movie has broadened my geopolitical GK.

Three hours of action, that’s what the movie is. Those who love such action – much of which happens with elaborate technology flying around in sophisticated aircrafts – will love this movie. Then there is also a bonus of some pop philosophy and simplistic theology. Like: “When there emerge places where God cannot go with His goodness, some dark force like Lucifer has to emerge.” [Not exact quote; from my feeble memory]

Good versus evil, and good vanquishing evil, are cliché now. Today evil is too powerful for the good to overcome. So some fallen angel like Lucifer is necessary. [Lucifer was the title of the first movie in this series.] The writer of this series, Murali Gopi, seems to be obsessed with the necessity of a Lucifer-like superpower for redeeming our world which has fallen into the hands of wicked rulers and leaders.

I’m not sure whether the world can be saved at all. But I’m sure our movies will have plenty of action with a Lucifer moving out to save us from our wicked leaders.