Dinjith Ayyathan’s ‘Kishkindha Kaandam’, a 2024 Malayalam thriller, enmeshes emotions, familial relations, and mystery in his storytelling. Monikered after Ramayana’s Kishkindha Kaandam, where Lord Rama allies with the monkey gods Hanuman and Sugriva on his quest to bring Sita back from Raavana’s Lanka, the movie peals together layered narration of the search for the truth and the suspense that drives the life of the characters. In Dinjith Ayyathan’s story to monkeys come to feature significantly in all their intermingling with the humans.
The story begins with Ajayan (Asif Ali), who, a forest officer himself, brings his new wife, Aparna (Aparna Balamurali), herself an IT professional in Bengaluru, after a quiet registered marriage, to his ancestral home set close to a dense forest. And soon after, we are introduced to Ajayan’s father, Appu Pillai (Vijaya Raghavan), who is a reclusive, easily angered, and stern military man. We learn soon after that Ajayan’s wife had died of a disease earlier, and their son had gone missing. And that their son’s mysterious disappearance could possibly be linked to Appu Pillai.
There are elections going on in Kerala. And Appu Pillai must submit his gun to the police authorities. He looks around. But, to no avail. The gun is missing. And there are attempts to find the gun. People climb trees. They look to see if it has fallen anywhere. But, in a few days, the news flashed that a monkey was seen holding a gun. And the panic sets in.
Appu Pillai is shown to be dealing with dementia, but also struggles to hide it from the world. So, he devises ways to keep track of things—writes notes of everything. His movement from one point to another. His interactions with others. His impression of them. Everything. And in these meticulous notes, Appu’s world comes to sustain and crumble. And soon after, rebuild and crumble.
Aparna, for her part, wants to fit in—wants to be a part of the family. But, soon, she begins to doubt Appu Pillai of having ulterior motives, much like those of us in the audience. Appu, because of his movement, which is all the while mysterious, tends to be seen as a suspect and as having something to do with the disappearance of Ajayan’s son.
The film, ‘Kishkindha Kaandam’, is brilliantly written. It boasts stellar performances from its lead actors. Asif Ali and Vijaya Raghavan are exceptional. All through the movie, there is a sense of suspense. The narrative is tight and layered in its own right. It deals with how past traumas tend to shape present lives, and how humans come to deal with memory loss and complexities in human relations.
‘Kishkindha Kaandam’ is sophisticated too, and at no point could I really guess its ending—and the ending, it seems, is again exceptional. Go watch it on Hotstar if you have nothing else to do this weekend. 🙂