Churuli (2021, Lijo Jose Pellissery)

Chaos and Lijo Jose Pellissery are synonymous in every sense of the word. Since the latter half of the last decade, he has acquired an unusual style of storytelling having a carnivalesque fervour, delivering classics one after other.

Pellissery's bewildering latest venture unlike Jallikattu builds up gradually to get into the conflict and unsettling mode; commences with an ambiguous animated sequence backed by a monologue followed by the camera wandering through the High Ranges of the mesmerising Western Ghats.

The village of Churuli portrays itself as a character. Light played an integral part of Jallikattu whereas Churuli is shrouded by a misty aura for most parts, which fabricates the haunting tone of the film all over. Churuli is encapsulated by those small-town folk horror anecdotes that made our childhood, as Pellissery manages to forge a bizarre and dreadful atmosphere just by gossips.

Even though Pellissery says he doesn't make the film twice, there's an uncanny resemblance with Jallikattu: the recurring characters, the wilderness, chase sequences. But there aren't any second thoughts about his ability to induce anxiety, even the screeching of tires causes monumental distress.

The film is loaded with situational humour and enmeshed social commentary but at times the jauntiness doesn't come out as organic. Pellissery is in no mood to provide any explanation rather releases his characters in a whirlpool of mysticism and lets the imagery do the talking.

Pellissery is a wizard in terms of technicalities, be it the dreamlike visuals, immaculate sound design or the audacious editing, all meshing smoothly to bestow one of the finest cinematic trips of the year, which is certainly enjoyable if not coherent as a whole.

Churuli works wonders as a spectacle but Pellissery often gets a little disoriented in his labyrinth of magic realism. As Abbas Kiarostami once stated "there are films that nail you to the seat and overwhelm you to the point that you forget everything, but you feel cheated later.", guess this falls under this category.