Not So Millennial: Perspective on Lijo Jose Pellissery's "Churuli"

A maze is everywhere in the film and what continued to amaze me till the very end is how my thoughts spiraled into something else rather than forming a perfect circle. This is my take on Churuli. I am not a critic or film maker but I am someone who enjoys watching movies and taking something from them. 

So, let the ideas flow!

 

Imagine you are in field, an endless field of essentials. You have everything to eat, drink, enjoy, struggle and survive. Would you want to continue living your entire life there? knowing that there will be no ups and downs just a smooth straight road? I don't want to stay there for sure. I would say that place is a metaphor for trapped. The two main characters of the movie, Antony and Shajivan represent two different attitudes to this trapped situation. Antony wants to be in the field, enjoy his life and continue like that. Shajivan, who is young and is married and has certain things to look forward to , wants to go back even from the very beginning. They are two cops coming in undercover for finding a criminal. They discover, Churuli, a place in the mountains, the field where every action takes place yet nothing is etched or remembered. At first, they become judgemental and considers the mountaineers  as so humble and down-to-earth people. The story and their perception of the people and the land alters as they cross a wooden bridge. It might seem simple, the act of crossing a bridge, but the scene is presented in a way that we, the viewers wants to do something so that their vehicles, the jeep, crosses the bridge. The inhabitants of Churuli whom they considered to be innocent snaps into verbally abusive brats. Everyone in Churuli is surviving in their own hell yet continues to celebrate that. There are no answers for most of the hints or doubts being delivered. There are notions of aliens, religious intervention, revenge, psychological traps and time-loop. Honestly, nothing seems to connect the dots but it does make your head go wild. We feel like we are trapped in the labyrinth of thoughts even after watching the movie. That's what happens when you see art and starts to analyze it.  

For me the essence of the movie lies in the identity of the inhabitants of Churli. They don't have strong emotions like love or hatred. They don't care if one of them dies. They treat women with no respect and the women in turn reflects a carefree attitude. The scene where the transformed the local toddy shop into church made me understand that they twist everything according to their needs. Nothing holds an attachment to them. If they want to be spiritual, they let it be, if they want to do all the horrible abusing they chose to do that. Life goes on and on. We see the inhabitants of Churuli going out and coming back to that place. Where they go might not be a far place either. At a point of time I thought this is Lijo Jose Pellisserry's version of hell. They might have landed there accidentally and wants to go back. The movie points out that they are no good people either. Shajivan killing an inhabitant and Antony's whole attitude to be a part of Churuli explains it. What they need to escape is somebody who should take up all the sin. Like Adam complained about Eve and Eve in turn put all the sins on the snake, they both blame the criminal for their acts. Once they finds him and reaches a bright spot, they don't get nowhere near the end. As the story told in the beginning of the movie, they continues to be in the labyrinth. Soubin's Joy is either the controller of the Churuli universe or he is himself someone who got entrapped in the maze a very long time ago. The head exploding emoji is the apt thing to describe the movie because that it what it is.

Diya Maria George