KOCHI: Kayattam (A’hr) [Malayalam]
Sanal Kumar Sasidharan’s new film A’hr (Kayattam) is one of the strangest entries at IFFK 2021. However, it is decipherable somewhat. Co-produced by and starring Manju Warrier, the film has the actor playing someone whose mystery remains hidden even after the end credits roll, and that’s easily the best part of this experimental film.
One wonders if the mythical connotations wouldn’t have been obvious enough had the makers not given a hint as to the nature of ‘Maya’, the protagonist, in the opening crawl. We also get clues about the character through songs by an indigenous group. Though some of these songs test our patience, the placement of the others makes perfect sense.
At times, Kayattam feels like the third part of a trilogy that began with S Durga. As in that film and Sanal’s last film Chola, we see voyeuristic male eyes trying to gauge the nature of the relationship between a man and a woman. Before making the characters’ motives clear, Sanal takes us through stunning landscapes — captured mostly in wide-angle by Chandru Selvaraj.
The Woman Who Ran [South Korea]
Like the Japanese master Yasujiro Ozu, South Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo seems to be making the same film twice. Despite the familiarity, the fresh insights into human nature that he brings reminds us that we are watching a different film. Though having Korean characters and often the same set of actors playing them, these films address themes that speak to a global audience.
The Woman Who Ran revolves around multiple female characters. The conversations are intimate and soul-stirring, and the emotions fluctuating and contradictory. The women discuss existential subjects and mundane aspects of everyday life — love, divorce, relationships, food, health, and more. Sang-soo makes stunningly astute observations about people. Sang-soo is careful not to infuse his filmmaking with much glamour.
He employs the most simple framing techniques and often uses zooms to cut from one particular shot to another — say a wide to a medium shot — instead of cutting to it. Cinephiles familiar with the works of Eric Rohmer and Richard Linklater may find enough to appreciate in The Woman Who Ran.