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'''Piravi'''


aka Birth
1988 110’ col Malayalam
d/co-sc Shaji N. Karun pc Filmfolk
co-sc/st S. Jayachandran Nair co-sc Raghu
c Sunny Joseph m Mohan Sitara, Aravindan
lp Premji, Archana, Lakshmiamma,
C.V. Sriraman, Mullenezhi, Chandran Nair


A visually engrossing yet austere directorial
debut by Kerala’s leading cinematographer.
The plot is taken from actuality and concerns a
frail but dogged old man, Chakyar (Premji),
who obsessively searches for his vanished son,
Raghu, venturing even into bewildering
Trivandrum to seek an audience with the
Home Minister. The man’s daughter learns that
her brother probably died in police custody
after being tortured, but she cannot bear to tell
her father who continues to hope and to
search. However, the old man’s grip on reality
is slipping fast and he begins dreaming that his
son is with him. The story is based on the
disappearance of Rajan, a Naxalite sympathiser,
during the Emergency. Rajan’s father later sued
the Congress-I Government. The film’s force
comes from its skilful orchestration of time and
space into fascinating rhythmical patterns
interacting with land and cityscapes, drawing
the viewer into the father’s obsessive search in
everyday, indifferent surroundings. It is also
highly mystical, and deflects a major real-life
incident with direct political repercussions into
a brand of orientalist fatalism.

[[Film]]