Lijo Jose Pellissery’s magic of chaos

iamanoushkajain
February 11, 2025

Lijo Jose Pellissery’s magic of chaos
Article By – Aayushi kumari

Renowned as the Master of Chaos, Lijo Jose Pellissery is a Malayali director who is said to be one of the forerunners of the famous New Generation films movement in Malayalam cinema. Born in Chalakudy, Kerala, Lijo’s father was a well-established theatre artist. Because of the strong influence of his father’s theatre group, Lijo was continuously in awe of the world of cinema and always wanted to be a part of it. However, due to unforeseen circumstances, he got into business and worked at a firm for some time. In 2010, Lijo finally achieved his dream of working as a film director and debuted with his movie ‘Nayakaan’. Since then, a series of highly acclaimed movies have been directed by him, with one of them getting nominated for Oscars. Through this article, Lijo Jose Pellisery’s impact on Malayalam cinema will be brought to light with a special emphasis on the rise of Post Modernist Cinema and the New Generation films movement in India.

The twenty-first century is marked by the rise of strings of movements in different industries in the world one of them being Cinema which underwent humongous evolution resonating with the present-day changing world. The New Generation Movement is also a part of this movement which resulted in the rise of unconventional narration styles and cinematography techniques justifying the saying that ‘Art is done not to impress but to express’. With this movement, a shift could be traced in the Malayalam cinema from the earlier setting of serene village life to chaotic town life. The ‘superstar system’ was eroded with inexperienced and new actors getting cast at a larger scale. The screenplay got rooted in social realities and the characters of the movies got a unique touch of ‘ordinary life’. Despite getting inspired by global trends, Malayalam cinema never lost its local touch and with the rise of the postmodern world rose cinema!

Lijo Jose Pellisery’s movies are also a part of this New Generation Movement and meet all the characteristics of post-modernist cinema. Using non-linear styles and multiple narrations as a part of storytelling, Lijo’s movies create the feeling of suffocative bliss. All the movies directed by him follow the themes of chaos giving him the nickname of ‘Master of Chaos’. Every movie of his brings in the concept of a conflict ensuing in the world created by God. These movies first focus on the concept of a beautiful world created perfectly by God with abundant resources available at hand and suddenly the scene changes when humans arrive manipulating nature according to their needs. This results in a conundrum causing the rupture of the existing peaceful era. Lijo catches this theme in his movies and explores biblical stories of creation and evolution through the struggle of his characters. Thus, Faith remains a permanent theme in Lijo’s movies constantly dealing with its appearance and disappearance depending on the circumstances of the characters. In movies like Amen, City of God, and Ee mau Yau; Lijo tries to unfurl different shades of human faith exposing how some people find solace in institutional worship while others prefer formless worship.

Other than faith, Food has also been an important component of Lijo’s movies, especially meat symbolizing intense desire. In Angamaly diaries (2017), meat was shown as the reason behind all the violence when two groups of youngsters got involved in a fight due to competition over the Pork business. Similarly in Jallikattu (2019), the movie that got nominated for Oscars, greed over the meat of buffalo led to a fight among villagers ultimately resulting in excessive fighting and cannibalism. Movies like these show a conflict between man and nature as a whole, again going back to the repetition of the theme of disruption caused by human beings in Lijo’s movies.

This recurrent issue of nature vs man has been captured well in Churuli, the movie Lijo directed in 2022. Churuli in Malayalam means labyrinth and movie analysts believe that the plot of Churuli is inspired by Dante’s Inferno. Inferno is a term for hell and in his work ‘Divine Comedy’, Dante showed his and the Roman poet Virgil’s journey in the dark forest to reach the Inferno. Following the suit, in Churuli, two cops falsely named Anthony and Shajivan go on a secret mission to capture a criminal named Joy hiding in the forest of Churuli. All the nine circles of hell sequentially named limbo, lust, gluttony, greed, anger, heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery are found in Churuli’s plot that ultimately ended with the discovery of Joy in a paralyzed state. However, things did not end here and at the end of the movie, it was revealed that Anthony and Shajivan both got captured in a time loop and now had no way out. Cinematography peaks in this movie as mainly wide-angle or layered shots are taken creating the illusion of being seen by someone all the time.

Lijo’s employment of angles, tracking shots, and varied use of zoom-ins and zoom-outs make his movies idiosyncratic and uncomfortably attractive. The use of folk songs like in the case of Amen which shows the journey of Solomon, an aspiring Clarinet Player, helps the audience in connecting with their cultural realities, again showing the touch of Postmodern cinema. One movie of Lijo that is said to be markedly different is Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam. In this movie, the feeling of longing for close ones is depicted which is an uncommon theme taking into account Lijo’s style of showing dilemma and chaos. In this movie, the soul of a Tamilian named Sundaram enters the body of James, a Malayali who suddenly starts behaving like Sundaram. Throughout the movie, Lijo used wide angles to show the movement of James when he was behaving like Sundaram. A close-up was shown only when Sundaram’s soul realized that he had died and now he had to leave the body of James. This clever use of camera angles to point towards the development of character is what makes Lijo’s movies oddly relatable.

Dotting his movies with hyperlink narratives, inevitable violence, and proper use of Geography; Lijo never fails to draw the attention of his audience. In Angamaly diaries, Liso shot an eleven-minute chasing sequence in a single shot which caught the attention of people. The casting of eighty-six new actors in this movie was also a big step as during this time, the ‘superstar effect’ was still evident. Nevertheless, Lijo succeeded in creating a masterpiece in the form of Angamaly diaries which got lots of praise.

Lijo clearly stated in his interviews that he did not like intellectualizing movies and that interpretations of movies should be left to the public. In 2024, he released his latest movie titled Malaikottai Vaaliban which, according to him, was an amalgamation of his childhood experiences and nostalgia. Despite high hopes of gaining public appraisal, this movie was attacked by social media influencers who expressed their disappointment over the lack of connectivity in the setting of the plot and faulty character development. However, as Rick Rubin writes in his book titled ‘Creative Act’ – “The purpose of art is to bring out your perspective in the most unaltered manner without worrying about whether it will be comprehensible.” Pellissery also follows the same concept and without any break, he is already working on his next movie. Through Lijo’s movies, one could easily trace the journey of New Generation Films or the Malayalam movement. Unlike the films of the 2000s that revolved around the popularity of leading actors, the current wave in the Malayalam film industry is more like a romantic ode to the golden age of Malayalam cinema. Besides the increasing presence of unknown actors and new directors, the postmodern industry developed a whole new way of looking at cinema. Although the new trend is criticized for extracting themes and approaches from Hollywood, they adhered to the realities of Malayali life. The heightened emphasis on the Malayali consciousness is an inevitable factor that defined the movies post-2010. The New Wave films also questioned the moral standards and unacceptable norms that had a dehumanizing effect on society. Moreover, films turned out to be a tool to tell the

tale of places, instead of resolving the conflicts in the life of a single character, and Lijo’s movies are a great testimony to this fact!

References

1.https://youtu.be/2LRRZc1NRJo?si=mSjIzXieNASLA_fF

2.https://youtu.be/TZTGRNdpVRc?si=HVcH3U_aKV6ERvBi

3.https://youtu.be/uUI0uwyqv4s?si=PAY2nf4mG9bfTKIB

4.https://openthemagazine.com/cinema/lijo-jose-pellissery-directors-special/

5.https://youtu.be/XvlXTL6dCbQ?si=j0zfPEKd8mkWyqQK

6.https://youtu.be/ul4CdK2hb18?si=buPnsKQ7K_8tWBQS

7.https://youtu.be/Erh1wNqo53A?si=M8T7oFS_b3234Rtg

8.http://117.239.78.102:8080/jspui/bitstream/123456789/2953/1/Sneha.%20P.%20AM21ENG026.pdf

1. Liso jose pelissery

2. Scene from the movie Nanpakal Nerathu showing the component of Faith