'1001 Nunakal' film review: Stimulating, ingeniously constructed family drama
Have you ever looked at ‘happy’ pictures of couples on social media and wondered if they’re genuinely happy? Is either partner harbouring a lie of which the other isn’t aware? What if both are privy to some information that could cause -- to borrow a Vadivelu phrase -- “total damage” to both? I was recently discussing, with a friend, the subject of married couples whose partnership is built on lies -- how, in some cases, a secret revealed a decade or two later inflicts irrevocable trauma. I imagined the nightmare of the individual of either gender who suddenly faces the grim thought of dealing with the after-effects. How well do couples know each other?
Some ardent cinephiles may be already familiar with the 2016 Italian film Perfect Strangers (or its numerous remakes), in which a bunch of friends get together for dinner one night and start a game where each has to place their phones on the table. The basic idea? To find out if one of them is cheating. (Recently, we saw a murder mystery variation of this in Jeethu Joseph’s 12th Man.) Both these films make one ask a thought-provoking question: Are successful relationships those where some truths are best kept hidden? Is being completely transparent practically possible?
Thamar’s 1001 Nunakal might invite comparisons to the above films on account of dealing with a similar scenario -- of couples caught in a truth-telling situation. But it’s also original as the treatment and plotting differ remarkably from the aforementioned films. In fact, I found it way more interesting than 12th Man -- I won’t tell you whether someone gets murdered or not -- and on par with Perfect Strangers with regard to the believability, the characters brought to their table, and how convincingly they sell their dynamic.
At the film’s mid-point, when these characters are already in the middle of the game, one character reminds the other that it’s better to continue it after putting the barbecue in their garden to work lest they miss out on the pleasures of it. It’s almost as though this barbecue is analogous to the ‘burn’ some of them are already feeling because, by that point, a few illusions get shattered, with increasing intensity. After all, it all began with an apartment fire, the butterfly effect of which impacts every character.
Barring a few external scenes, 1001 Nunakal is primarily a chamber drama without a boring second, thanks to the competent turns from all the lead performers and the fluidity with which their conversations move from one scene to the next. I would’ve loved to mention every actor and the manner in which they wonderfully contribute to the film, but, I’m also wary of giving away anything considering how unpredictability seems to have been the primary intention behind the casting choices. The risk of preconceived notions is absent here and works to the film’s advantage. 1001 Nunakal functions like two movies -- or rather, one short movie and a big one -- with the conflict of one clashing with that of the second.
Interestingly, despite the close proximity of characters from both stories, the screenplay finds enough ways to subvert our expectations with regard to how everything pans out between them. Thamar makes the dynamic of one couple painfully evident in a short span while leaving everyone else’s a mystery.
All these characters are occasionally framed in tight shots to evoke a sense of oppression; despite the spaciousness of their wealthy host’s (Vishnu Agasthya) home, one begins to sense each character feeling stifled by their predicaments. The camera, like an unseen observer, is as eager to see everyone spill their secrets as much as the one who initiated the game. Even when one character speaks, every other character remains in our vision because reaction shots and wide framing ensure their compulsory participation.
Out of all the performers, maybe I should single out the excellent Sudheesh Scaria for standing out as the advocate friend of the family who shows up as the personification of a truth serum -- the initiator of the game, much to the chagrin of all his friends who showed up that night and now wish they hadn’t. But at the same time, it wouldn’t be fair to dismiss this character as a ‘negative’ considering how he manages to pull off a soul purification process and, thereby, lightening the load of a character or two, regardless of how their lives would proceed after that one night. However, there’s an ambiguous quality to this character that can be a topic for a stimulating discussion.
As a whole, 1001 Nunakal is an impressive debut shot with the finesse of a veteran. It has as much -- or almost the same -- depth as the intense family dramas of Asghar Farhadi or, to take the example of a Malayalam cinema veteran, KG George, keeping in mind how the characters in their stories are visibly transformed -- for good or bad -- by forces not of their own making.
Film: 1001 Nunakal
Director: Thamar KV
Cast: Vishnu Agasthya, Sudheesh Scaria, Remya Suresh, Zhinz Shan
Streamer: SonyLIV
Rating: 4/5