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.

I want to preface this review that I absolutely believe she's done it. Given the evidence and timeline there is almost no doubt that she's guilty.

And it's a really nicely made true crime film. The timeline is well worked out. Her life and motives are clearly known, and the family members clearly want the full story told. And it's frequently awful to watch. Just normal ignorance, lack of oversight and questional methods by coroners allowed her to continue.

Again I think she did it. But I felt a little uncomfortable that the only 'other side of the story', was some hack lawyer? Perhaps everyone who knows her turned on her. Fair enough. But the counter argument could have been narrated or at least laid out for balance. She hasn't been convicted yet, and even tho she seems completely guilty, it's til proven innocent, so it seems a bit of a hit piece. It kind of takes away from it's integrity.

I remember hearing lots of news reports and self-made theories related to this case from media houses a few years back. I never knew all the details of this case, and we tend to forget all the elements, including the chronology of events, after a few years. This documentary does well in collating all the details and I did enjoy this doc from Netflix.

I won't say this is a bad documentary but still, there were questions left unanswered and I think the creators could have included all this and could have made it a comprehensive one. I am not going into spoilers. Just give the documentary a watch and you will get it.

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.