Aparahnam

aka The Late Afternoon 1990 116’ col Malayalam d/s M.P. Sukumaran Nair pc Rachana Films c Ashwani Kaul m Jerry Amaldev lp Babu Anthony, Jalaja, Kaviyoor Ponnamma, Babu Namboodiri

An elegy for a defeated middle-class radical and veteran of the Naxalite rising. Released from prison, Nandakumar remains a suspect and is unable to settle into a job. He refuses advice to emigrate to the Gulf and suffers harassment both from the police and from his erstwhile comrades. During the Emergency in the mid-70s, he is imprisoned again. In the end, all he has left are his increasingly fanciful memories of his days as a young radical. Much of the film’s storytelling, performance and lighting evokes the elegaic naturalism of the director’s mentor, Adoor Gopalakrishnan.

Film