The Thing (1982)

Director: John Carpenter
Writers: Bill Lancaster, John W. Campbell Jr.
DOP: Dean Cundey
Cast: Kurt Russell, A. Wilford Brimley, Keith David

A crew in Antarctica finds a neighbouring camp destroyed and its crew dead. Whatever killed them is nowhere to be found, unless it is hidden in plain sight.

'Thing' in the thing is a parasitic alien being that can assimilate into its victim and thus form an imitation. Once the crew figures it out, what follows is paranoia as they are not sure who among them is an alien victim. The situation was an inspiration for Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs and there is an even more direct connection to the Hateful Eight as well. Ennio Morricone's unused work from 'The Thing' was largely used in the latter and 'Beastiality' also made an appearance in it.

Alien being was created using practical effects which was not quite as good as Ridley Scott's Alien. There was also this very badly executed computer exposition scene where the probability of infection and time taken to infect the whole of earth is spelled out. I was feeling that the film had not aged well during the initial parts of the film but it was misplaced as it improved vastly once it began focusing on the paranoia aspect. The production quality towards the end with the night sequences in snow is really great with flares and all that. The dog in the beginning is one creepy fucker.

It had released two weeks after ET along with Blade Runner. It bombed both critically and commercially as the gory unfriendly alien in grim settings turned the audience off. It has since been hailed rightly as a masterpiece. I actually enjoyed it much more than Alien and it should be more interesting on rewatch as well.

Rating: 4.25/5

യവനിക (Yavanika) (1982)

Director: K.G. George
Writers:  S.L. Puram Sadhanandhan, K.G. George
Cast:        Bharat Gopi, Thilakan, Mammooty, Kalanjal
Language: Malayalam

A tabla artist (Bharat Gopi) from a drama troupe, who is hated by everyone, goes missing and police starts investigating the same. He was living in with a co-artist (Jalaja), about whom he was very possessive and naturally there are many suspects who had an axe to grind with him. Bharat Gopi doesn't enter the frame till around half hour mark of the film and we see him through flashbacks as the police officer, Mammooty in a breakthrough role for his career, interrogates various people connected to the missing person.

The film is rightly or wrongly considered as one of the best investigative mysteries from Malayalam cinema. It does a thing very well in the sense that enough clues are given for the audience to guess who the murderer is. But you do feel that K.G. George is not projecting it as a murder mystery and more like a look into what goes on behind the scenes of a drama troupe. The case isn't very complicated and it gets solved in a quite straight-forward manner. What makes the film stand out is the excellent performance from the entire cast with the one from Asokan being my favourite. The mystery aspect is not the central point of the film is evident by the fact that there are numerous songs in it for a K.G. George film and you also get extended sequences from the drama on stage at various points of the film. If you are not engrossed by that aspect of the film and just want a straight forward murder mystery, you will end up being disappointed with it.

'Rashomon' effect is a very misused term when it comes to film criticism and many people use it to describe same incident being shown while different people narrate it from their perspective. That doesn't cut it. You need to have different people describing the same incident with different takes on it influenced by their perspective, biases and memories which can be quite unreliable. What you get in Yavanika is not 'Rashomon' effect. It is just multiple narration of the same thing with great amount of reliability, with reliability being the key term.

Yavanika is a great watch for what it is but don't go into it thinking it is a murder mystery genre film. It is not K.G. George's best work like it is cracked up to be, but was the one with the most mainstream appeal. Both Thilakan and Mammooty won state awards for their performances in it. It got lukewarm response initially, as K.G. George was known as a new-gen filmmaker without mass appeal, but went on to become a commercial success due to word of mouth.

Rating: 4/5

എലിപ്പത്തായം (Elippathayam: Rat-Trap) (1982)

Director: Adoor Gopalakrishnan
Writer:   Adoor Gopalakrishnan
Cast:      Karamana Janardanan Nair, Sharada, Jalaja
Language: Malayalam

Film is centered around a family in post-feudal Kerala who are finding it difficult to come to grips with their new reality. It consists of three siblings with the eldest being a very lazy and patriarchal bachelor guy called Unni (Karamana) who is also prone to paranoia and cowardice. The second one is a middle-aged spinster (Sharada) and the youngest one is a tutorial going comparatively modern girl (Jalaja). Over the course of the film we learn that they also have a married sister who is the eldest among them and is making demands for their assets to be partitioned. We find that the dynamics in the house itself is such that the character played by Sharada has become like a maid to her other siblings and is often taken for granted. Rats getting trapped is a recurring motif in the film and by the end we realize that it is a metaphor for the trapped existence of the characters played by Karamana and Sharada who are caught between two worlds. 

Film actually begins on a funny note as the three characters are chasing a rat in near darkness. Then there is a sequence in which the youngest sister is seen dusting off an old rat-trap and she demonstrates how a rat will get trapped using her hands and this is done in a very Hitchcockian fashion. Then she is shown taking the first rat that is trapped to a pond in order to drown and kill it. The sequence is set to a very distinctive and foreboding background music and it is recurring sequence in the film. Towards the end we see that instead of rat, a very sick Sharada is taken to the pond and during the end sequence it is Karamana being taken. Karamana is totally dependent on others for his existence and he shows fuck all gratitude for it. He represents the exploitative feudal land lord but since feudalism has ended, he is exhibiting it towards his younger sister who lives very much like a slave. The exploitation is not outright cruel but it is just that he takes his privileged position of being the patriarch for granted and his obliviousness when behaving in a thoroughly selfish manner is utmost pathetic. The youngest sister (Jalaja) is also lazy in the modern sense and don't let herself be exploited by her two eldest siblings. She has come to grips with the new reality and takes bold steps to escape from the tharavadu (household). After that, Sharada falls sick and the only concern that Karamana exhibits is regarding how he will get fed. Sharada is taken by the villagers, presumably to the hospital, but the scene is like one of the rat sequences which finally cuts to the pond. Finally the reclusive Karamana is forced out and thrown to the pond as if he cannot bring himself to commit suicide so that he can also escape from his trapped rat life. These last two sequences in the film could very well be symbolic in the sense that both these characters are so meek that they cannot even take the initiative to end their own lives.

It was 'Elippathayam' that first brought international recognition for Adoor as it received an award from BFI (British Film Institute). It was also screened at Cannes in the Un Certian Regard, which is certainly a big deal for a film from India. It reminded me of Todd Solondz films which can best be described as social satire of the darkest kind and usually features very cringy characters and situations. The performances from both Karamana and Sharada are excellent and I was surprised that they didn't get national awards for it. They are ably supported by rest of the cast. Film is medium paced and the directorial flourishes during the opening scenes grabs your attention immediately. Nothing is spoon-fed to the audience and we will learn gradually about all the characters. It is something that I enjoy in films since it makes the experience cerebral. To sum up, it is one of the best films I have seen from Malayalam and is widely considered as Adoor's best film.  

Rating: 5/5