Jallikattu (2019 film)


Jallikattu is a 2019 Indian Malayalam-language independent action film directed by Lijo Jose Pellissery with a screenplay by S. Hareesh and R. Jayakumar, based on the short story Maoist by Hareesh. The film stars Antony Varghese, Chemban Vinod Jose, Sabumon Abdusamad and Santhy Balachandran. The plot follows a bull that escapes from a slaughterhouse in a hilly remote village and the entire village men gathering to hunt down the animal.
Jallikattu premiered on 6 September 2019 at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival and received widespread critical acclaim. The film was showcased at the 24th Busan International Film Festival under the section 'A Window on Asian Cinema'. It was released in home state Kerala on 4 October 2019. Lijo Jose Pellissery received Best Director trophy at the 50th International Film Festival of India. The film won the Best Sound and Best Editing awards at the 7th Aurangabad International Film Festival on 9 February 2020.

Plot

Kalan Varkey is a buffalo butcher, whom the entire village relies on for fresh meat. A regular ritual of buffalo slaughter goes haywire for Kalan Varkey, when the animal breaks lose and creates havoc across the village. Fingers get pointed, the police are called in, and the entire village gets sucked into catching the errant animal. Mob mentality soon prevails. The entire village is led by adversaries Kuttachan and Anthony and they take the matter into their own hands. The film also focuses on subplots like the father of a bride deciding menu for next day marriage, Sophie's problematic love triangle, unemployed youth and their pathetic ennui expressed through needs for validation that becomes a burden on the community, among others. The dadaist ebb and flow of the story strikes an uneasy balance between megalomania, lewdness and absurd frenziness.

Cast

The film score was produced by Prashant Pillai.

Release

The official trailer of the film was unveiled by Friday Film House on 28 September 2019. Jallikattu was premiered at Toronto International Film Festival 2019. It was theatrically released on 4 October 2019 in Kerala.

Critical response

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 92% based on 13 reviews, with an average rating of 7.42/10. Reviewing the movie for Onmanorama, Sajesh Mohan wrote: "After Ee. Ma. Yau, Lijo Jose Pellissery has again opted to saunter through the innate nature of humans in an off-kilter manner." According to the reviewer, 'the movie's technical brilliance is something that Mollywood can flaunt for a long time to come.'
Baradwaj Rangan of Film Companion South wrote "In other words, Jallikattu wants to transform local colour and local history into something universal and primal — and even if the bigger point becomes repetitive after a while, the film is always rewarding. The screenplay is essentially a series of vignettes, and some of them are screamingly funny".

Box office

The film grossed approximately ₹10 crores in its first week run in Kerala. Per trade sources, 65 percent of the film's box office collection in Kerala came from major multiplexes.