Biriyaani Analysis

Biriyaani (2020)

Written, Sound Designed & Directed by: Sajin Baabu
Starring: Kani Kusruti
Playing at the online Indian Film Festival, LA.

The film is about Khadeeja navigating through life after her brother is accused of terrorism. Her husband divorces her, and she has to take care of her mentally unstable mother. After she dies, she resorts to prostitution and faces numerous assaults. The film has a religious setting - it explores all the facets of Islam - mostly the dark ones. As the film opens, we see Khadeeja not being satisfied, and her husband calling her names when she starts masturbating after he is done. We see the graphic visuals of a young boy's circumcision. We see a goat being beheaded. We see Khadeeja getting a text 'Talaq talaq talaq' from her husband - so it essentially shows us all the dark sides of Islam. The film navigates in the Three Colors: Blue space - for a while, it felt like this is perhaps her way of grieving the loss of her mother, her brother and maybe even the divorce of her husband - but she's also doing it out of feeling liberated finally. It's quite a complex headspace the character was in. Having said that, for some reason at no point in the film could I empathize with her. 

The director being the sound designer himself, I could see interesting usage of sounds at places; for example at the scene where Khadeeja sees that her mother has passed - they use sounds of thunder to create some drama. But apart from this scene, every scene is conceived in a realist way - but the problem is that, I couldn't feel. Realism is supposed to elevate the drama because it feels real. The ending, where she makes them eat the foetus - I was reminded of the ending of Great Indian Kitchen (I don't which came earlier). After she jumps, the film cuts to a sex scene with her ex-husband where she's having amazing sex - perhaps that's how she wanted life like. The film did a good job showing passionless sex - it feels so bad even looking at it, that we understand how she'd feel. I can also recall the camera angles being used in a way to show her power dynamics. The film was a surreal experience.