After a theatre group’s party, their sole actress is subjected to a crime by one of the men. Stories unravel, suspicions surface and clamour ensues as a meeting is called to reach a consensus. This is the Wikipedia summary of Anand Ekarshi’s Aattam, starring Vinay Forrt, Zarin Shihab, Kalabhavan Shajon and a solid supporting cast. I think it’s a pretty well-captured gist of the proceedings and should do a fair job of intriguing you to go watch the film on Amazon Prime Video if you haven’t.
I watched the film during its opening weekend in theatres in January. I walked into the film without watching the trailer or reading any reviews; the only reference I had was 12 Angry Men, which many Twitterati compared its narrative style to. But the next two odd hours blew my mind like no other Malayalam film had in recent times. (Just five days into 2024 and we had a classic!) I had a flurry of thoughts that day as I walked out of the theatre in a vicharambicha state.
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While we’ve seen a lot of posts on the internet praising the film’s technical brilliance and messaging, I’d like to focus on the cocktail genre of the film, and how it ‘used’ its tail-end genre to drive home its most important point.
The film begins by introducing the 12 characters of the drama troupe and showing us a glimpse of the happenings of the night that the sexual assault occurred. Hereon, we see a clash of ideologies between the men of the troupe: some of them unconditionally side with the survivor, while others find it more beneficial to side with the accused (who is in a position of power). We begin to think that the film would be centred on this ideological battle.
But with the interval twist, we begin to see the two-faced nature of the initially woke men of the group. At this point, we begin assuming that Aattam is a satirical social commentary aimed at exposing the hypocrisy of men. However, with the entry of the survivor, Anjali, in the third act and the revelations that follow, we are taken for a ride. Anjali cites two factors that led her to believe that the perpetrator is Hari: (1) his car keys accidentally falling into her room during the assault, (2) the smell of his perfume diffusing into her room upon his entry.
From what we’re shown in the first act (the night of the crime), we know that at least 3 of the troupe members had attempted to get hold of Hari’s keys for various personal motives. We also know that some of the men had drenched themselves in Hari’s perfume in his absence. In other words, we realise that the proof against Hari isn’t conclusive. This is where the film prompts us into a mystery zone.
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Any whodunit plot has the following series of steps: (this is a generalised version, of course)
- Introduction to Setting and Characters
- Inciting Incident
- Introduction of the Detective
- Discovery of Clues and Introduction of Suspects
- Red Herrings and Misdirection
- Character Development and Motives
- Rising suspense
- Plot twists and revelations
- Climax reveal
- Resolution and closure
Aattam throws us straight into step 5: The revelation that the proofs weren’t conclusive. That’s when we realise that the film had already taken us through the previous steps without us even knowing it.
1. We are by now familiar with all the characters.
2. We have all the available details of the inciting incident.
3. As there isn’t a single appointed detective in this scenario (and because no one can now be trusted), we are tempted to don this hat now.
4. As discussed earlier, the film shows us some crucial fragments from the night of the crime. At the time, we don’t realise their significance, but upon the revelation of the Red Herring, all these snippets become potential clues whose inspection could lead to suspects.
5. Thanks to the detailed conversation between the men that ensues post the accusation, we also have an idea of each character’s traits and motivations.
6. With all the information we have at our disposal, we start eliminating suspects. Vinay is Anjali’s boyfriend, so he’s out. Jolly was talking to his wife a few minutes earlier, so less chance of him too. Hari and Sanosh were both fast asleep by then (as proven by Jolly’s screenshot) and so less likely to be guilty…Madhan privately checking the CCTV footage is definitely suspicious. So is Sudheer, who was probably aroused by the porn he was watching a little while before the incident…
7. You are piecing together all these bits, trying to arrive at the culprit. But you are also watching the film in parallel to see what new information could crop up. Suddenly, you realise that the film isn’t interested in treading down your path.
The happenings of the night of the ‘investigation’ are abruptly cut, and we are shown the ending of Anjali’s play. Here, we see 12 masked men, all of whom have shown their hypocritical nature over the course of the conversations. When one of the men comes forward to confess the crime (in the play; we don’t know if this has transpired in real) and almost removes his mask, Anjali lays down the point the film was trying to convey all along: it isn’t just about the man who performed the gruesome act, but also about the men who did not have the conscience to stand for what is right. “There is no difference between any of you”, she says.
This lack of a climactic revelation, is primarily what makes Aattam, a revelation!
It puts forward its point by making us think in conventional black-and-white terms – like most whodunits do – and then shows us how in most real scenarios, things are in the grey.
Well played, Mr. Anand Ekarshi!
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P.S. This is just one aspect of the film, and there’s so much more that’s worthy of praise:
- Zarin Shihab’s terrific portrayal of Anjali.
- Anand Ekarshi’s empathetic look at the psychology of an SA survivor.
- Vinay Forrt’s supremely entertaining performance as the scheming Vinay.
- Strategic use of weather as an excuse to change locations (adds dynamism to an otherwise one-note setting.
- The choreography of the actual drama portions at the start and end of the film.
In an already prolific year that has given us Premalu, Bramayugam and Manjummel Boys, Aattam still stands tall as a personal favourite. Do pen down your thoughts about Aattam in the comments below!
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