Curry & Cyanide: The Jolly Joseph Case

If you're familiar with Asiaville's 2020 Spotify podcast Death, Lies & Cyanide, or if you're from Kerala (or lived there in the past few years at least), you'd already know the entire chronology of events in this case. Of course, the most striking element here is that a woman allegedly committed these heinous crimes. The podcast I mentioned has a subtle horror undertone to it (backed by a superb score and a terrific narration), whereas Christo Tomy's Netflix documentary plays out more like a mystery thriller.

The reenactments are neatly done, and the interviews give us added insight from the family's perspective, especially from an emotional angle. The editing pattern is reminiscent of what we've seen in several Netflix productions (of this kind) in recent times, replete with jumpcuts, family-tree diagrams, and a non-linear style of presentation. It would've been interesting (although not practical) to hear from Jolly herself, but since the trials are ongoing and will probably take years to conclude, I understand why Netflix went the route it did.

An engrossing documentary that moves so fast that it forgets that it's a documentary. Usually, when I watch a documentary, even when it's based on a well-known event, there would be a lot more research that goes into it which shows a lot more information than what the media would've told till then. Here, that is not the case. There's little to nothing in the way of new information that I wasn't aware of before. Moreover, good documentaries would delve into more faults from the side of the police or those which happened at different points of investigation which seemed to have happened a lot in this case but is not focused. The whole focus was on telling the story from a fixed perspective in a thrilling manner. Even though, Aloor is shown as someone who speaks for Jolly, it is not nearly as convincing as it is designed to be. Which itself is not an issue, but when there's so much more that happened around it that is conveniently skipped, which feels almost like it is because it was never covered by the mainstream media. There are so many questions I'm left with at the end, that the overuse of some cinematic techniques makes me feel this wasn't as good as I felt when I watched it.

The way Jolly has given some of her statements, and the way her own son talks about her, it is pretty clear she is the culprit even without more solid evidence. But the lack of more solid evidence and the lack of focus on different angles on why that happened is very apparent here.

Overall as a documentary, this feels like an average affair because it is a cinematic retelling of a known story without any research into new information.

Curry & Cyanide is an absolutely gripping and disturbing documentary about the Koodathayi Cyanide killing case and includes viewpoints from many individuals involved with the events. Kudos to the sister who pursued the case relentlessly to "speak for the dead" even under intense public scorn. The creators of the series meticulously compiled the data and and superbly articulated the gruesome story related to this case. This is a psychopath story that may make you lose faith in humanity at times and will definitely leave you feeling unwell in the end. Netflix does a good job releasing these true crime documentaries.

A community is rocked to learn that six murders were carried out by the family's matriarch, Jolly Joseph.

Jolly Joseph, she sounds like a children's entertainer, someone to bring joy and happiness into people's lives, not in this case, the name behind one of India's most shocking cases, six murders over a ten year period.

It's a well made documentary, both interesting and revealing.

The acts are terrible, but the one that stands out, the murder of the two year old child, whoever could do that, the only word is evil.

It doesn't perhaps give us all of the answers, but perhaps that's because not all of the points of this case have come to light. The investigation continues.

Amazing to see how Jolly's kids have all grown up and matured, turning out to be some very impressive, reasoned, intelligent people, food luck to them all.

8/10.

Let me thank Netflix first as I came across this beautiful, gripping and capturing scenes so vividly. Though there has been several adaptations in the form podcasts and TV serials but I found this documentary superbly made.

The narration, correct sequences and chronology of events were well adapted. The flow of the documentary was well placed where it gave sufficient time to audience to understand what was happening. The interviews of the family did make me feel the pain they were going through and how they were coping in last 20yrs.

The sound and music I felt was appropriate and well moderated, it further made the documentary more gripping. The direction and the script was very good and made me eager and glued to my seat to follow the chronology so that I don't miss any critical situations.

It is stumbling to see that people in the world has criminal mind and are able to hide it, but one fine day such heinous crimes are revealed.