Paka (River of Blood)

This movie is a revenge story in a village backdrop with a natural and rustic looking and gripping screenplay. All Actors acted naturally. Director did the job as an seasoned/experienced though it is his first movie as a director. I really liked the screenplay and sound design.

A great film maker who has a handle on his craft doesnt really need fancy equipment, unlimited budgets and top-draw stars to tell us a good story. Tharun Moorthy showcased that in "Operation Java (2021)" and Senna Hegde underlined the same in "Thinkazhcha Nishchayam (2021)" and now we have another name to add to that accomplished lexicon. Nithin Lukose and his gloriously minimalistic, poignantly engaging retelling of the Romeo-Juliet story in "Paka" is a bonafide masterpiece holding your attention for the entirety of its runtime with its spine-tingling narrative style and a clutch of superb performances.

The Illikkal and Vettikkal families take the place of the Montagues and Capulets in a rustic rural Wayanad setting, sworn enemies due to a bitter rivalry generations past. Basil Paulose shines as "Johny" the young scion of the Illikkal clan who abhors violence and his family's gruesome history but is haplessly in love with Anna (Vinitha Koshy) from the Vettikkal family. How the pair of star-crossed lovers move heaven and earth to be together amidst the furore thrown up by their alliance amidst a bunch of blood-thirsty relatives forms the rest of the story.

While we have seen similar storylines in the past like in "Godfather (1991)" and "Annayum Rasoolum (2013)", Lukose takes an altogether different approach with a characteristic disconnected, almost forlorn narrative style that is both disconcerting and too good to turn away from at the same time. Scenes that call for grotesque, gory violence are dealt with in an impressively minimalist fashion, with the actors' facial expressions accompanied with symbolism, excellent sound design and use of light communicating the fury and hatred much more than the actual bloodshed.

The team deserves immense praise for its casting, with Jose Kizhakkan an absolute standout as the ageing ex-convict patriarch "Kocheppu" of the Illikkal clan while Athul Johny as "Paachi" and Nithin George as "Joey" put in eye-catching shifts. Nithin Lukose's minimalism comes to the fore in his use of just a pair of hands and the voice to portray the ageing bedridden Illikkal family matriarch, a narrative device that would fall flat if not executed to perfection like he has. "Paka" is a towering example of how a filmmaker can make even the most cliched stories engaging using their own authentic and distinctive narrative styles and visual treatment, backed by a keen sense of casting the perfect actors all the while being constrained by a limited budget. Highly recommended. An absolute must watch!

The main reason I watched Paka was only because of one man, Anurag Kashyap who is onboard as one of the movie's producers. The trailer gives me a glimpse of what might be the core and the movie's treatment. Paka is a raw movie, that seems to be an alien thing to the Malayalam film industry (some of Lijo Jose Pellissery's movies are exceptional) and looks like an art-house thriller product. It has some sort of reference from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet where the subject revolves around the love affair of Jhonny and Anna both of them from two rival families. They look forward to the unity of their families through their marriage. But something disastrous is going to happen when the protagonist's father's younger brother comes to the place after a long term of imprisonment. The tagline or the subtitle of the movie is River of Blood and it is so suitable for the movie because the river plays an important role in the movie. Every moment or the hypes in the film are connected with the river. We can experience and entertain through a small remote village in the outskirts of Kerala where the majority of the people are illiterate and doing simple jobs. So we can see some sort of wild nature in each and everyone which pleases the entirety of the movie. Most of the actors are new ones but that doesn't reflect while they performing their particular characters. The most important thing that I found special in the movie is the sound design. We can feel the minimal usage of background score in the movie because the sound of nature got its prominence here. The entire graph of the movie can be judged through the progression of the sound. As I early said, the story takes place in a remote village, so the beauty and the visual imagery have gained something important which gave us attention to the movie. When we look out the river seems to be a little one and the director doesn't intend to shoot the river with a wide lens but the situations happening around shows us the violent as well as raw nature of the river. Director Nithin Lukose's debut attempt was a good one and he can do better with his next one.

The performances by the cast, a blend of amateurs and professionals, capture the everyday rhythms of the region even as the actors rise to the challenge of fleshing out characters who are caught in situations that are anything but ordinary.

What makes PAKA stand out is how well it is put together. Once you see the film it's hard to believe that it's a small production film. The actors, the setting, the narrative, the music, the tone of the film all seamlessly blends together to bring in a thrillingly well crafted visual treat. My favourite thing about the film is how it presents the river. The river as a space becomes a character in and of itself. It is the one place where everyone's thoughts are tied together for better or for worse. Another interesting aspect of the film is it's circular nature. It ends where it began but it also doesn't end exactly as it began. This small difference is precisely what makes a large impact in the film. All in all PAKA is definitely worth a watch as it pulls our thoughts into questions surrounding ancestry, tradition, masculinity, familial bond, the circle of life and of course 'revenge'.