Skip to main content

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.

 

Comments

  1. A very detailed analysis with insights! However, movie lovers cannot even imagine such aspects of the movie and enjoy the thriller with their popcorn basket!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hari OM
    The mathematical truth of two negatives make a positive does not apply when it comes to philosophy or society. Evil may fight evil, but then only evil prevails. That and your comment about three hours of action tell me this is nothing but propaganda for the use of violence. It buys into the mentality that seems to be rising for unthinking, unfettered, gutteral responses. If we know that young folk (mainly male) fall for the foul leadings of the likes of Andrew Tate on social media, how does this film have effect upon their psyche? YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Violence is becoming a virtue for the young generation now. Movies also play a big role here. I wish we had good movie-makers like in the last quarter of 20th century Kerala.

      To tell you the truth, this movie made me laugh unexpectedly. Even the violence in it was stupid, calculated to make Lucifer punch down a dozen a minute. But, yes, how are Lucifer fans going to take it? That matters.

      Delete
  3. Ah yes, an action movie where you turn off your brain as nothing deeper is happening.

    ReplyDelete
  4. The film Empuraan indeed seems to weave a complex narrative with its focus on revenge, morality, and contemporary political themes. It brings up important themes about the struggle between good and evil, while integrating global issues and politics.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Enjoyed reading your Empuraan review, Hope soon watch this film.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...

Joys of Onam and a reflection

Suppose that the whole universe were to be saved and made perfect and happy forever on just one condition: one single soul must suffer, alone, eternally. Would this be acceptable? Philosopher William James asked that in his 1891 book, The Moral Philosopher and the Moral Life . Please think about it once again and answer the question for yourself. You, as well as others, are going to live a life without a tinge of sorrow. Joyful existence. Life in Paradise. The only condition is that one person will take up all the sorrows of the universe on him-/herself and suffer – alone, eternally. What do you say? James’s answer is a firm no . “Not even a god would be justified in setting up such a scheme,” James asserted, knowing too well how the Bible justified a positive answer to his question. “It is expedient that one man should die for the people, so that the nation can be saved” [John 11:50]. Jesus was that one man in the Biblical vision of redemption. I was reading a Malayalam period...

Are You Sane?

Illustration by Gemini AI A few months back, a clinical psychiatrist asked me whether anyone in my family ever suffered from insanity. “All of us are insane to some degree,” I wanted to tell her. But I didn’t because there was another family member with me. We had taken a youngster of the family for counselling. I had forgotten the above episode until something happened the other day which led me to write last post . The incident that prompted me to write that post brought down an elder of my family from the pedestal on which I had placed him simply because he is a very devout religious person who prays a lot and moves about in the society like the gentlest soul that ever lived in these not-so-gentle terrains. I also think that the severe flu which descended on me that night was partly a product of my disillusionment. The realisation that one’s religion and devotion that guided one for seven decades hadn’t touched one’s heart even a little bit was a rude shock to me. What does re...

Loving God and Hating People

Illustration by Gemini AI There are too many people, including in my extended family. who love God so much that other people have no place in their hearts. God fills their hearts. They go to church or other similar places every day and meet their God. I guess they do. But they return home from the place of worship only to pour out the venom in their hearts on those around them. When I’m vexed by such ‘religious’ people I consult Dostoevsky’s novel The Brothers Karamazov in which there are some characters who are acutely vexed by spiritual questions. Let me leave Ivan Karamazov to himself, as he has been discussed too much already. In Book II, Chapter 4 [ A lady of Little Faith ], a troubled woman comes to Father Zosima, the wise monk, and confesses her spiritual struggle. “I long to love God,” she says. She knows that she cannot love God without loving her fellow human beings, or at least doing some service to them. The truth is, she says, “I cannot bear people. The closer they ...