Thoughts: Amma ariyan(1986)

02 February,2022

I’ll state the obvious, Amma ariyan is one of the greatest malayalam film ever made. Not mentioning Kummatty(1979) in the same breath would be a crime but still it is well known compared to amma ariyan one could say.

Cinema is not a collective art. A film directed by John Abraham is entirely of his own, just John Abraham’s. I take the decisions (not others). I am the Hitler of my cinema

One thing that you notice with the film is the amount of constraint in it. The film shows hopelessness, internal conflict and the war of ideals with life. Its an intelligent film, doesn’t state the obvious. The characters don’t talk to explain feelings, it does not have a magnificient background score to pinpoint the emotion or the situation, it lets you see the world in black and white(literally too). I do not have enough words to appreciate such a wonderful film that requires a lot more attention than it cuurenly has. I sure do hope a lot more people watch it.

John abaraham is considered a legend, but what makes me repect him even more is the Odessa Collective. Odessa was an attempt by a group of movie enthusiasts to change the history of film production and distribution by making it a collaborative effort with the public and thus act as an empowering and liberating medium. Since i am deviating from the topic i’ll stop here.