Ee.Ma.Yau by Lijo Jose Pellissery Analysis

Ee.Ma.Yau

Directed by: Lijo Jose Pellissery

Cinematography by: Shyju Khalid

This film is centered around a death of an old man and his wish to have a grand funeral, which his family struggles to arrange and there are interesting things happening around this. This film reminded me of the premise of 'The Funeral' by Christo Tomy which won the Best script at Cinestaan Script Writing contest. There are some common elements that Lijo Jose Pellissery has in his films, chaos, rain, meat, long takes and in overall an observatory style of narrative. This film has a cold view to the events happening, we just see what's happening and feel whatever we can and the film maker doesn't direct our emotions. There are funny things happening at the funeral and the film maker doesn't ask us to laugh at them nor does he makes us uncomfortable. He just presents some events happening and it depends on us as to how we react to them. 

The movie watching experience is a little different to watching a regular film, when it is a Lijo Jose Pellissery film. It feels like we've been transported to a different world for a while and witnessed some events there. There is conflict and resolution, but they aren't pushed on us to the extent that the story is what we remember after watching the film. We remember some quirky events, which were probably used as fillers like the guy who plays the faulty musical instrument and he being asked to leave and other events like the coffin breaking. The narrative begins with introducing the tonality of the film, showing us the world of the film which feels a little unnecessary, at least for someone who has watched Lijo Jose Pelliserry's other films. About 25 minutes into the film, the main conflict is presented and from there it is chaos all over, in the screenplay. By chaos, I mean the number of subplots, characters, the events happening in the frame all at once. I wonder how he writes the chaotic scenes, I also wonder if he does some improvisation in ADR (dubbing) for off screen characters or filler characters in chaotic scenes.

The long takes and the brilliant sound design feel so fluid and immersive that you feel you are right there. Long takes can be unnoticeable and pleasant to watch when there is enough drama happening that you don't notice if there was a cut or not but you observe them when there is not much happening and they just follow a character walking a long distance. I think those are done to regulate the pacing of the film. I remember watching Palme d'Or winning 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007) where it had long takes and I wouldn't notice till most of the scene is over. In that film, they have 3 people in a room and in most of the shots only 2 people are physically present and the other character is off screen the entire time and yet you don't wonder why they aren't showing the other person. I think long takes are most effective tools of narrative when the audience doesn't notice that it's a long take. Otherwise, it's just a tool of amusement to show the audience that they can do it.