Malayalam director Nitin Lukos’s Pak, which just screened at the ongoing inaugural edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival, is his first work, and like dozens of titles running along the lines of Shakespeare’s tragedy, Romeo and Juliet, this beach The story of two star-crossed lovers in a small village in Wayanad, Kerala. But where Pak differs is the way Lukos has written the finale, happily without any of the theatricality that we have come to associate with Indian cinema.
Dark and depressing, there is little excitement in Lukos’ writing. Even as Johnny (Basil Pauloz) and Anna (Vinita Koshy) between two warring families thirsty for each other’s blood, the quiet village runs like a river, though it hides a bloody story. . In this the dead bodies are thrown, a heinous practice, which is called Paka or river of blood.
In fact, the film opens with an ace, but an aging diver descends into the water and pulls out a body. This is watched by the police and the villagers with boredom; It is such a frequent occurrence that they have lost count and interest in the war that both families are fighting, determined to destroy almost every member. The head of one family is blind, in another the other is lying in bed, lying in a darkened room, stubbornly refusing to open the window and breathing a sigh of revenge, even the youngest member He is also provoking Pachi (Atul John). Pick up the dagger and kill.
Pak is death, destruction and defeat by all means, and the only let-up comes in the form of a budding romance between Johnny and Anna, who desire and work on a reconciliation, in the hope that their marriage will end this horrific conflict. Will finish and purify. River of poisoned blood. Initially, we see the two getting ready for the wedding, of course in secret, but the murder of her uncle, Kocheppu (Jose Kizhakn), gets in the way.
Kocheppu has just come out of prison after serving 15 years for the murder of a man from the “enemy” clan, but he is determined to stop this blood and gore, and even apologizes to Anna. asks. It was a terrible mistake. Your father and I got into a fight, and it happened, he says, almost to convince him.
But with Johnny’s grandmother and Anna’s grandfather thirsting for revenge, the animosity doesn’t seem to end anytime soon. There is a horrific scene in which Dadi pushes a mere schoolboy, Pachi, to go out and kill him. She tells him that his elder brother, Johnny, is a coward, unwilling to take up arms and save the family’s honour.
While Leukose’s work is subtle and subdued, it sometimes borders on impossibility. After the initial killings, the police seem to have lost interest, and they have become mere spectacles as bodies are routinely thrown into the river. As the two families are pushed into doom, with Anna not in a mood to be at peace with the men in the family, Kocheppu and others like Johnny are desperate not to let the feud pass on to the next generation. Kocheppu does so with an apology, Johnny lovingly, while Anna falls into a bind. She is confused and angry, afraid that this bloody fight will ruin her marriage and happiness.
The performances are monotonous, except for Kizhakkan, who exudes charm and little joy to drive away the gloomy clouds over his beloved village. He’s a natural, but Pauloz and Koshi are too rigid to move the story forward. A little more life in them could have lived an otherwise disturbing and bleak story.
(Gautam Bhaskaran is a writer, commentator and film critic who has covered several film festivals such as Cannes, Venice and Tokyo over the years)
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