Thoughts: John Abraham & Amma ariyan(1986)

22 September,2023

John abaraham is a legend, but what makes him standout from the crowd is the Odessa Collective. Odessa Collective 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. He believed in and understood the power of this cinema and stories like these are inspiring.

  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

Amma ariyan is one of the greatest malayalam film ever made.

Not mentioning Kummatty(1979) in the same breath would be a crime, but it is well known. G. Aravindan’s work is very well know, recently Scorcese’s The film foundation restored Thampu. Aravindan requires a post of his own, so i’ll get back to the matter at hand.

One thing that i had noticed with the film is the amount of constraint in it. Everyone seems to be in a struggle with one’s own ideals & emotions. They do things because they have to. The film depicts this hopelessness and inner turmoil, being shot it B&W added to it. The characters rarely talk, they do what needs to be done. This is not a flashy film in any way, it’s a bare bone film and it needs to be one too and found the experience of watching Amma ariyan thought provoking and extremely satisfying.

I do not have enough words to appreciate such a wonderful film that requires a lot more attention than it currenly has. I sure do hope a lot more people watch it. The best thing is that its available for free in youtube. Oh and its Joy Mathew’s debut film.