Bramayugam review: Mammootty steals the thunder yet again
In Rahul Sadasivan’s mystery-horror thriller, an exploration into power and greed in the 17th century, there is never a dull moment
“Ente manayilekku swagatham” (welcome to my abode), says Kodumon Potty as he beckons the passerby who wanders through the padippura (gateway) to his illam (homestead) a few minutes into Bramayugam. Now, that sounds as menacing as “Aao kabhi haveli pe” (Come to the mansion sometime). As Potty, essayed by Mammootty, delivers it, his face is revealed to the viewers in that very shot.
From then on, Kodumon Potty has the audience firmly cast in a spell, just as the passerby played by Arjun Ashokan in Bramayugam. Potty is an elderly Namboothiri (land-owning Brahmin), with powers of wizardry, or so we are led to believe. Potty’s illam is in ruins, with only a cook (Sidharth Bharathan) for company, before Arjun Ashokan’s Thevan joins them.
The Method to The Madness
Not long afterwards, Thevan is invited by Potty to play a board game of Pakida, but the former has nothing to wager. Potty asks Thevan to pledge his ‘fate’ where a loss will forever take away the latter’s freedom, meaning he cannot leave the illam for good. Does Thevan manage to liberate himself? Is Potty all that he seems to be? To know that you have to catch Bramayugam in a theatre near you.
Bramayugam is a decent attempt at making a mystery-horror thriller, where the fables of Malabar Coast come alive in the imagination of Rahul Sadasivan. A tad too long at 140 minutes, the filmmaker seemed to be in different minds to lock in the climax, as there are needless twists and turns there which kill the punch. But that’s but a minor quibble in what is a visually-arresting and thrilling film where elements of horror are neatly intertwined with black magic and legends.
That Sadasivan is a good filmmaker was established with his previous film, Bhoothakaalam (2022), but just as he bungled by revealing the full figure of the ghosts there, he uncovers a bit too much in certain scenes in Bramayugam as well. The title translates to the “age of madness” — so shouldn’t it be spelled ‘Bhramayugam’, one wonders. Sahitya Academy Award winner TD Ramakrishnan has been roped in to get the dialogues of the period right — it’s set in the early 17th century — especially in the light of his notable work, Francis Itty Cora (2009).
Mammootty Lets Himself Loose
The film has just half-a-dozen characters, including a goblin, but Sadasivan makes sure that there is never a dull moment. And although the black-and-white format doesn’t seem to come in the way of story-telling or aesthetics, the film would have probably excelled further with a colour palette. Arjun Ashokan is brilliant here and Sidharth Bharathan handles his part adeptly, but just as the glimpses in the teasers revealed, it’s Mammootty who steals the thunder yet again.
Mammootty has always been class apart when it comes to playing characters with negative shades, and his Kodumon Potty is comparable to Bhaskara Pattelar in Vidheyan (1993) or Murikkin Kunnath Ahmad Haji in Paleri Manikyam (2009) on that count. Mammootty is at his best essaying older characters as he doesn’t have to quicken up his ageing reflexes and that gives him that extra bit of freedom here to simply let himself loose.
Amalda Liz as the lone female character, of a yakshi/vampire as the promos suggested, gets just a couple of scenes. Christo Xavier blends the narrative with the mystery and horror elements as music director and Shehnad Jalal cranks the camera. Sadasivan keeps the audience hooked till the end with enough suspense elements going, although the climax sequences feel fairly prolonged.
There was a controversy over Mammootty’s character being named Kunjamon Potty (a character in Kottarathil Sankunny’s Aithihyamala or Garland of Legends) but there is no relation to that character here. Universal themes such as greed and power are explored through the central characters, and there is enough to chew on when the end title credits roll.