Ee Ma Yau

The last 20 minutes of the movie Ee Ma Yau is perhaps the perfect example for breathtaking film making. My eyes were glued to the screen, I was able to understand the pain of Eeshi and it all ended in a fabulous visual. Set in the backdrop of a funeral, Ee Ma Yau explores human behaviour through black humour and realistic emotions. With each character staying in your head with various attributes, this Lijo Jose Pellissery movie is an experience Malayalam should see as it already has welcomed movies like Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum and Sudani from Nigeria.

Vavachan is the father of Eeshi. He is not a responsible father as he frequently leaves home without telling the family. His son Eeshi has an emotional connect with his father and thus he has promised his father that he would make sure the funeral of Vavachan would be grand. The movie Ee Ma Yau is actually showing us what happens when that day arrived without notice.

What PF Mathews and Lijo Jose Pellissery have done here is an autopsy of characters. Don Palathara has made a movie named Shavam with a similar premise and this one from Lijo Jose Pellissery takes a path similar to Shavam in establishing the ambience to a certain level. But the aims and ambitions of Ee Ma Yau are more layered and awakening. The psychology of the humans to accuse a normal death as murder and ignore a murder as normal death, the scene where a man slut shames a female for hurting his male chauvinistic ego, the way the mother character pokes at a dowry story in the midst of a tragedy, how our emotional sentiments are utilized by others and how even a priest can possess ego etc gets depicted in the most subtle way.

In my observation, the most perfect character in the movie was Ayyappan. He was actually selfless and committed where as everyone else had some sort of hypocrisy or ego making them a grey character. And yet Ayyappan played by Vinayakan was so real. Chemban Vinod Jose scores greatly in the climax where he fabulously conveys the frustration of a son who was unable to keep the promises. Pauly Valsan got the state award for best supporting actress and a major portion of her performance was in the sound part as we mostly hear her rather than seeing her expression. Dileesh Pothan was really good as the Sherlock priest with too much of ego. Kainakari Thangaraj plays the role of Vavachan effectively. Lijo’s Angamaly team is there in various roles in the cast along with Rakshadhikari Baiju fame Krishna Padmakumar. Every character has been assigned to actors who were perfect to do the role.

On a theme selection level, this is Lijo Jose Pellissery’s best in my opinion. He is a director who doesn’t want to stick to a particular genre and this one is perhaps the most layered film he has made. The scene that comes at the end where we get to see the dead men waiting to be taken to hell or heaven is one frame which was engrossing and thought provoking. Lijo wasn’t spoon feeding for a moment and the visuals made me feel that one can read out a lot from those after each viewing. Shyju Khalid’s frames are authentic giving us a texture of the landscape and also the emotional condition of the story. Lijo maintains his signature style even in a different genre by using long single shots which intensifies the drama. Like I already said, the content written by PF Mathews is a critique on many things. He laughs at the insincerity of humans and the insensitivity in behaviour through scenes and Lijo makes it believable through visuals. The music is minimal and when it finally gushes at the end, the movie gets elevated to a different level altogether.

Ee Ma Yau is an experience a cine goer should not miss. It’s a movie worth applying a lot of perspectives. It can be seen from the viewpoint of various characters. It’s dark, emotional and hilarious.

Rating: 4/5

By Aswin Bharadwaj

Founder and editor of Lensmen Reviews.

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