Skip to main content

Movie Review: Eeb Allay Ooo (2019)

'Power'ful Humour

Movie: Eeb Allay Ooo

Dir: Prateek Vats

   Eeb Allay Ooo are not words with meaning and are in fact sounds uttered by monkeys (“Eeeeeb”), langurs (“Allaaaay”) and humans (“Oooo”) in Prateek Vats interestingly theatrical debut, that works as an attempt to bring out the dynamics of power politics happening in India. For that matter, the overly dramatic action on display is justifiable as it serves in funnily exposing the primeval politics of Nationalism and Brahmanism trampling over the lives of the poor.

   The film primarily presents us with the life of a jobless young man who suddenly gets recruited in a government post of shooeing away monkeys that reside on Raisina hill, the government district of New Delhi. What ensues thereon is all monkey-business, as the guy Anjani has to put up with (in a desperate and agonisingly confusing manner) all kinds of discrimination. A usual film would have focused on one of those areas of subjecting the protagonist’s dignity under question and would either end up with him being the powerless victim or as an avenger of his own rights. Eeb Allay Ooo transcends this generic idea and amalgamates it’s tension (along with an Anjani  that grows more insecure, morose and pride-less) via what ensues in the main character’s work place environment. 

   Unlike Sanal Kumar Sasidharan's Ozhivu Divasathe Kali and even Lijo Jose Pellissery's Jellikattu that wanted it’s commentary to be so strong that the films end with a thumping crescendo as a culmination of all the tension that the films builts on themselves, Prateek Vats' debut is more balanced. It gets off its hook and becomes completely funny at one point before becoming menacingly serious at another. Vat’s cinema doesn’t seek for that cherry on top crescendo to leave the audience baffled, which makes its intentions very clear, that it’s not just an attempt to impress the filmgoers.


   The fact that the film touches upon almost all aspects of the power dynamics existing in the country and doesn’t actually loose track of itself is something great. While Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra used the motif of a “Kaala Bandhar”(black monkey) in Delhi 6 to mirror the darkness within individuals that’s making them to act wildly, the monkey business here acts as a backdrop for exposing many evils and is not metaphorically limiting itself to a certain aspect. For instance, see how Anjani's brother-in-law is forced with a gun by his officials, and how he gave up his initial dilemma of carrying such a weapon of power, when he actually holds it up against a guy from the neighbourhood, as he looses his cool. It prompts a dialogue about the corrupting influence of power on an individual even if it’s not always his own wish to engage in senseless policing.

   Saumyananda Sahi, the cinematographer of the film seems to know that the film is more than its frames and is more indulgent in capturing the emotions of what’s happening—be it in the dark alleys or during the rapture of the hanuman-god festivities. Prateek Vats doesn’t seem to show off his skills, and is more  concerned with providing the issue at hand with an appropriate artistic depiction.

   A guy getting lynched for accidently killing a monkey might seem strange to someone who's not accustomed to what’s happening in the country. But for us...we know better.👍

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Movie Review: Ichi the Killer (2001)

A Wrong Movie for the Wrong Times Movie: Ichi the Killer Dir: Takashi Miike     Ichi the Killer is devoid of any of the morals that we are conditioned to watch in movies and is regressively violent all through its length. Takashi Miike is in for a two hour long self-indulgent exploratory trip on the nuances of human violence, and the fact that he doesn’t care at all, brings forth a sense of awful disgust in the mind of an ordinary film goer(that includes me) all through the film.     The film begins with Ichi, an insecure young man playing the peeping tom on the balcony of a couple. Ichi is gaining pleasure out of the man's act of thrashing up his girlfriend’s face, which consequently makes him to jerk off vigorously and end up ejaculating himself on a potted plant. The title of the film strangely emerges from the puddle of semen that dripped fresh off the plant. What ensues is an aesthetically catchy and merciless gore-fest to which every single character of ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Movie Review: Kaathal (2023)

A Tale of Acceptance Movie: Kaathal - The Core Dir: Jeo Baby     Kaathal is both emotionally draining and uplifting at the same time. Almost every major character in the film exhibits a face filled with pent-up emotions waiting to burst out into uglier forms, which surprisingly doesn't happen. But the beauty of the film is that when the emotional blast does come towards the end, it arrives with rather kinder tones of acceptance, letting go and setting everyone free. Both Mathew played by Mammoty and Omana by Jyothika are portrayed as a stone-cold couple who talk very little and emote very little shades of delight in their faces. Their physical self doesn't loosen up from the rigidity till the closing scenes of the film when they have found the closure they've been yearning for.    While Great Indian Kitchen was about setting oneself free from oppression when patriarchy tried its best to pin down the woman of the story, his subsequent film Sreedhanya Catering Service ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Movie Review: Vagabond (1985)

Woman on the Road Movie: Vagabond Dir: Agnès Varda    Brimming with humanity, Vagabond tells the bum-like life of a vagrant girl called Mona. With unflinching resilience and courage to lead on with her life of independence and cool-headedness, she accompanies people she meets along the way, only to split with them after a while.    The movie begins with someone  finding Mona in a gutter, lying all frozen and stained with the purple of wine dreg. What ensues is a peep into her life before the incident, starting with her arrival into that place from a beach. We get to know Mona through flashbacks emanating from the confessions of the people whom she met along the road. All of them remembers her clearly, as she is that girl which either someone's mother doesn’t want her daughter to become or was a pain in the ass for another person who offered her help.     Agnès Varda , who made the brilliant Cleo from 5 to 7 that showed the life of a lady who roams th...
Post a Comment
Read more