In Joji , Dileesh Pothan’s latest collaboration with Fahadh Faasil, evil moves smoothly, like cinematographer Shyju Khalid’s graceful trave...
In Joji, Dileesh Pothan’s latest collaboration with Fahadh Faasil, evil moves smoothly, like cinematographer Shyju Khalid’s graceful travelling shots. Khalid’s camerawork observes Joji (Faasil) from a distance or follows him around as he plots the destruction of his clan, one member at a time.
The unobtrusive and unfussy shot-taking approach is of a piece with the movie’s larger treatment of events, which include conspiracy, murder and deception. Syam Puskharan’s adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth leaches out the blood and passion in favour of a clinical examination of the gutting of a wealthy family.
Meshing the conventions of the inheritance drama with the suspense thriller, Pushkaran and Pothan have crafted a film that marvellously holds together for as long as Joji stays in control and then elegantly comes apart at the exact point that he loses it. The 113-minute Malayalam production is being streamed on Amazon Prime Video.
Joji is the youngest of Kuttappan’s brood: three sons, a daughter-in-law and a grandson. Resentful of the virile, domineering patriarch, the family all but rejoices when Kuttappan has a stroke.
Each of the sons has something to gain from Kuttappan’s demise and something to lose if he survives. Only one of them makes a decisive play for the throne. Joji, with the support...
