Adoor’s world of crime
Adoor Gopalakrishan’s cinema is not one of convenience. Neither will it willingly invite you nor will it consume you with an immediate euphoria and, just as soon you tire of it, put you gently down as time goes by. His cinema is incisive. Without any deliberate overt intention but smoothly, weaving relevant themes into the plots, allowing the viewer to discern the same. I am still discovering his work but having watched and read about two of his latest films this is what I felt.
Oru Pennum Ranaadum. A Climate for Crime. (2008)
Adoor adapts four short stories penned by Jnanpith award winning Malayalam writer Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai. Set in the 1940s in the Princely State of Travancore, tied together by the premise of crime for the feature, each episode stands independent of the others. From the first to the fourth, the definitive notes of crime take a turn when acts cannot be ticked off simply as a right or a wrong.
The Thief
And then there is that few-decades-old tale of a young boy whose victimised father in that subterranean moment of despondency becomes an offender himself. When this maybe-eight-year-old takes his father’s hand in complete implicit understanding of the limits to which he was pushed to, he decides to lead. That deed there takes a vocal form here when the young pre-teen protagonist of ‘The Thief’ avers to his mother that he will reform his crooked father. 
It is as much about the stealings in the neighbourhood as that of the mindset of the child having good faith.
Though the old movie and this story have the same temporal setting (late nineteen forties, post WWII) there cannot be any comparison between the two. The thematic connecting thread is in the understanding of a child wanting the parent to be one who can never falter. The idol. It meant a lot in that day, it still means a lot today.
The Police
Pluck the two corrupt police constables out and put them in any rural /urban police station of India today and the story will still hold good. 
Because it isn’t. The law abetting the criminals however petty isn’t a figment of imagination. The question put forth is who pays for these misdeeds? And at what cost? Its all laid bare when the two corrupt constables have to do right the wrong but snare a completely hapless labourer. Worse is the inability of the caught to fight it out. His voice to be heard will come at a cost. The plot build and the eventual climax doesn’t belong to itself or the movie alone. When the labourer looks up with a surrendered expression it isn’t only his plight that’s written but of frame-ups still prevalent.
Two Men and a Woman
A young man. A young woman. The frivolity of both. The ensuing distress call for the woman. For the man. Saddled with the crime of 
impregnating the woman who is his domestic. Takes you by surprise because the histrionics seems unintentionally funny. Taking advice from his friend, the man, even though scared, suddenly comes into his own. All it takes is a visit to the crude, drunken village quack. His conscience becomes his voice. The story seems oddly placed in the series. Moral question it raises, its the resolution that is individualistic.
Then. Now. But beyond that…..
One Woman, Two Men
If in Naalu Pennungal, Adoor portrays women who, shackled by their individual circumstances are unable to break free because of regressive societal prejudices, in this last segment, he seems to liberate Panki, the village beauty, for whom a devoted older wealthy husband and a young paramour don’t seem to be enough.
The story strikes at what has always been considered the very foundation of marriage. The sanctity done away with; monogamy losing it’s meaning. Yet the woman ensures the relationships hold. No restrictions whatsoever. Putting the men in a predicament. When the husband returns after a police bailout (in because of the wife’s infidelity), she welcomes him with a relaxing bath and an elaborate meal. He is home. Is he? The future is not certain but he gives in. Should the woman be condemned? What of the paramour? It is bewildering because there don’t seem to be any immediate answers to the wrongdoings. Here, Adoor questions the very notion of love and loyalty between a man and a woman but leaves one grappling with issues of how much of this can be personalized. To refute or to concur with. After about sixty minutes (this fourth story takes the chunk of the total 115 minutes of the movie) just as the men turn towards the other with an empty look you are not sure if its only them who are at a complete loss.
Oru Pennum Ranaadum does not follow a linear narrative. Adoor has picked out four points and linked them with a supposedly common theme. He has explicitly detailed that dialogue is used predominantly to comment, endorse or simply report on the course of the plot in all the segments to lend the story a narrative form making the experience larger- than- life. This is very evident in the last segment which is narrated by an old couple. Yet it doesn’t detach the viewer. Hence the struggle. Whatever the reservations, Oru Pennum Ranaadum should not be given a miss.
Tags: Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Malayalam cinema
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
This movie is on my to be watched list.Looking forward to seeing it somehow soon.I certainly envy you Arthi for getting to watch it.Nice to see the write-up on this.Adoor certainly is a master at this kind of cinema!!!
hmmm!!all plots seem very interesting especially the first and the last one!!have heard a lot about Adoor but never seen his films!!
you’ve put up the film very well for us leaving many unanswered questions!! will try to get my hands on it!!
Ah finally someone touched the beautiful world of Adoor. I am , for long, is searching for the dvds of adoor. I tried torrent , its not there. Tried in landmark blore, mumbai and delhi but not even a single DVD of adoor is avilable in the store.
i shall be higly grateful , if someone can hint me where can I find his movies.
me too :-( cant find them anywhere
Addor’s Rat Trap can be ordered from Second Run DVD. Shadow Kill can be ordered from First Run Features. Both DVDs are listed on their websites.
where did you watch it?
i wonder why adoor’s movies are not released in mumbai?
Well Arthi was lucky to watch it @ the Film Appreciation course @ FTII.I use the word lucky because she saw it even before the film’s theatrical release.
This film is commercially released 3 weeks back (like every other movie made by adoor) and they generaly run for 2-4 weeks in the theatres of Kerala..
Think such films don’t have a long comm run down South itself, tough to get it here…Pune I mean…only come thru specific formal screenings….