Curry & Cyanide: The Jolly Joseph Case

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.

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 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.

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.

Just watch it! Go ahead and watch it instead of looking at the rating! Its probably 6/10 cuz not many people would have watched it yet! You will not feel bored for even a second is what I can absolutely surely tell you! Such an amazing direction and the background music to top it off! I initially thought cuz it's a documentary will I feel bored but nah! The story telling from the original family members and with the recreated scenes all of them were really sad and creepy to watch!!!👌🏻👌🏻I love how before each person died or before explaining the way they died,it first shows the picture of the person about to die and shows the birth and death year marked in red first and then shows that the said person is gonna die which leaves us in a tensed situation!

One thing to absolutely mention is the opening of this film🍿 They successfully captures the attention of the viewer from how well they did the opening! It would be a shame to stop this review without acknowledging the bgm!!That bgm is something man! When you watch the documentary and then the bgm plays it really puts you in a spot! This is my first time writing a review cuz i absolutely loved this piece! Kinda gave me dhrishyam flashbacks at certain points!