In Bramayugam: the age of Madness, worshipping gods begets no relevance.
Rahul Sadashivan’s Bramayugam deals with the questions of power, social hierarchy, and humans’ eagerness to play gods in an eerie mansion situated in the South Malabar around the 17th century. What made Bramayugam work for me was the approach to blend folk-horror with some damn-perfect execution to give one of my memorable theater experiences.
With references ranging from Vidheyan, Apocalypto, Tumbbad, old Japanese Samurai movies and Tarkovsky’s Stalker, Bramayugam leaves a lot to ponder once we exit the screens. The feeling that we are not able to dismiss it just as a good or bad film is my biggest takeaway I guess. Because the film’s objective was just so clear. As someone pointed out, we were glued to the screen with the absence of colours and was rooting for the devil to win, with the intense performance of Mammootty.
The meticulously crafted frames, the haunting loneliness, the unescapable mundaneness of the 17th century Malabar all came together to provide a film for the ages aided by splendid performances from both Arjun Ashokan and Sidharth Bharathan. The power struggles that exist between the three of them calls for a repeated watch, which might be able to explain a lot more on this tale of struggles heightened by the game of pakida or the game of fate, we call?
P.S. What an amazing trailer cut! If it’s possible, always watch the trailer of an awaited movie for the first time, once you come back from cinemas. An unparalleled experience.
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