‘A film that puts a Malayali collector, a Malayali general, and a Malayali gangster all in the same national plot does not feel pan-Indian. It feels like a school play where only one family showed up,’ notes Binu Alex after watching the Mohanlal-Mammootty starrer Patriot.
Watched Patriot last night. This is not a review but a thought.
A pan-India thriller. Big canvas. High stakes. Top politicians, top bureaucrats, top military officers, top intelligence operatives. Top businessmen. Top surveillance software executives. All Malayali. Every single one.
Now, I have nothing against Malayalis. Nobody does. I am one too. It is a well-established fact that you will find a Malayali wherever human life is possible. And in some places where it is not. There is the old joke that if you land on the moon, a Malayali will already be there, selling tea.
The filmmakers seem to have taken this as a policy document. The prime minister’s office? Kerala connection. The shady intelligence handler? Palakkad, most likely. The menacing pan-India gangster? Probably has a house in Malappuram.
‘The solution is not to make the entire Government of India a Malayali joint family reunion’
I understand that Malayalam films need one common language. That is a practical problem with a sensible solution. But the solution is not to make the entire Government of India a Malayali joint family reunion.
Hollywood gets away with everyone speaking English because everyone in America does speak English. More or less. With varying degrees of success. India is not like that. India is gloriously, exhaustingly different in every direction.
A film that puts a Malayali collector, a Malayali general, and a Malayali gangster all in the same national plot does not feel pan-Indian. It feels like a school play where only one family showed up.
I understand films are not documentaries. Nobody expects them to be. A little creative liberty is the whole point. But there is creative liberty, and then there is just not thinking it through.
My humble advice to the talented people making these films: You are very good at what you do. Kerala has produced some of the finest cinema this country has seen. Make more of that. Rooted, real, unmistakably Keralite.
The rest of India will watch. The rest of India has been watching. The world will catch up. It always does.
Photograph curated by Manisha Kotian/Rediff
