Nizhalkkuthu
Rajmohan
Amazing powers of the mystic rope
Amazing are the forms that power takes. Power, the arms of the state, which acts the role of a protector to its citizen. It is a paradox that the same protector-state requires these arms to protect itself from its citizen. The system thus formed becomes a complex one.
It may be this complexity that makes Kaliyappan lament that 'Oh! Goddess Kali, I can't understand a thing, for some the rope is a life taker, for some others it turn out to be a life giver!' It may be this same complexity that makes the innocent villager to praise the hanging rope for its magical powers and hopefully wait for the arrival of the new hanging rope so that it could replace the old one, which is almost finished by burning.
The title of Adoor's latest film Nizhalkkuthu (Shadow Kill) refers to the story from the Mahabharata, where the Kauravas employ a witch hunter to kill the Pandavas. He carries out black magic, where the spirits of the Pandavas are exhorted into their images. These images, the symbolic shadows of the Pandavas are stabbed to kill the actual Pandavas. When the original target is unreachable, target its shadow.
Kaliyappan, the last hangman of the state of Travancore is pulling on his life as an alcoholic, the reason for this self-destruction being the remorse born out of the guilt feeling after his last execution, the victim whom he believe was an innocent. The only way he finds solace is by worshipping the Mother goddess, Kali, chanting mantras and surrendering himself completely to her. The other major activity he indulges is his prolonged baths, thereby trying to wash off his guilt feeling. But the messenger arrives with the king's order appointing Kaliyappan as the hangman for yet another execution, creating further misery to him.
When the state uses its power to control the system using its most powerful weapon, the hanging rope, the hangman turns out to be a mere tool in the hands of the state. How could a tool be guilty of a crime? Isn't it the state responsible for this crime? (The crime done by a convict is punished by the state with an identical crime!) The state has an easy remedy: The King signs a letter pardoning the convict just before the hanging takes place, ensuring that this letter would reach the prison only after the execution is over, thus washing off its hands from the responsibility of the crime. Eventually the responsibility of this crime falls on the executioner, the tool.
As a tradition the hangman gets the hanging rope to his possession after the execution. In Kaliyappan's village the hanging rope assumes a mystical form. The ash obtained by burning the rope cures critically ill patients. The hanging rope in Kaliyappan's pooja room becomes an idol of worship for the villagers.
The magical powers of the ash obtained by burning the rope, the symbol of power, is thereby attributed to the rope itself by the people, whereas the patients get cured off the illness by destroying (burning) this very symbol of power (killing the shadow). The freedom from the social illness imposed by the power is thus obtained by destroying power itself. But with the scene where the inmates of the jail, the victims of power, is shown making the rope, the rope to be used against themselves, the hunter-victim equation becomes complex.
When the jailer narrates a 'spicy story' to Kaliyappan, the story of a young girl raped and killed by her brother-in-law, for which an innocent musician boy is convicted, the conscience of Kaliyappan makes him visualise the entire story as if happening to himself. Finally, when Kaliyappan realises that the convict whom he is about to execute is the same musician boy, Kaliyappan breaks down and the responsibility of the job of the hangman is passed on to his son, a Gandhian and freedom fighter, who accomplishes his father to the jail. When the conscience of Kaliyappan overshadows his loyalty towards his masters, he refuses to be the tool, the victim. But when one refuses to be a victim, hundreds of others wait to be victims.
When the man who is in struggle with the state for its political independence is entrusted the job of the hangman, a mere tool of the same state, he accepts it without any protest. In the final scene we see him walking towards the gallows, not with the expression of an executioner, but that of a convict condemned.
This is just an attempt to understand Nizhalkkuthu, a complex film with its multiple layers, in one such layer. Each time we see the film, think and rethink, new layers are added to it. This multiple dimensions the film offers, make it a great film.
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