Balan he Boy review
Cast: Adhisheshan KR, Farzana Palathingal, Girish AD, Tovino Thomas, and Dolly June
Director: Chidambaram
Star rating: ★★★.5
The defining image in Malayalam film director Chidambaram’s Balan The Boy comes in the first half, when mother and son find a moment of respite after a lot of running around. The two of them lie on the bed; she keeping a loaded gun beside her. It is a declaration. No one is welcome here in their chosen space, and if some outside force tries to break this peace, there will be consequences.
Unfolding like a mystery, this is a subtly layered and wrenching drama about the many layers of identity that protects and pulls us apart in equal measure. You enter the world of Balan thinking it as one thing, and slowly it turns, and unfolds into a completely different thing altogether.
The premise
Amma (Farzana) and her boy (Adhisheshan) drop out of prison when we first meet them. From here on, the two of them become a team, as they take on new names for themselves and hop on from one place to another to find ways to survive. Soon, she finds a roof beneath her head for the two of them when she comes to work for a wheelchair-bound old woman (a terrific performance from Dolly June).
The old woman is acutely observant and grows on to believe that the woman is not a thief when she sends her boy to the local school. Up until now, we barely know why she is choosing to run away, but a masterful scene in which she narrates a fairytale that ends in a disturbing way reflects a violent past. This woman has endured and chosen this vagabond life after all. She had no choice in the first place, did she?
Farzana, her presence distilled in stiff body language and in those round, persistent eyes, is revelatory to watch. Her gaze cuts through the screen like a knife. The frames often find her in haste, and the actor infuses life into the body of a woman who is given so little to express. Her concern, her immediacy, and her intelligence fill the screen with confidence. We know that she will find a way out with her boy, no matter what. When the second half leaves her to find a different shore, her absence fills the screen.
A breakaway in second half
This distinct break comes in the second half, when Balan the Boy tethers off into a very different sort of investigation. The boy is the only link that emerges here, as he will meet strangers who might or might not help him find his mother. After a terrific first half, the second half unfortunately loses quite a bit of momentum in establishing a new set of characters. But stay, suggests the continually surprising screenplay by Jithu Madhavan. Stay a little longer for these people.
In Balan The Boy, Chidambaram has assembled a marvelous group of technicians, each of whose contributions enhance the film’s visual and tonal language. The strongest asset of the film is in the casting, and the director’s younger brother, Ganapathi, has struck gold with the ensemble, especially in the case of the child actor. Shyju Khalid’s painterly frames, filled with close-ups and those lush wide shots, are masterful. Special mention to editor Vivek Harshan who manages to piece together breadcrumbs of a scattered story with exquisite control.
Chidambaram is throwing a shot here in the dark, hoping it lands. The only aspect where the film dips, is in the revenge subplot involving the character of a cop. It stretches too far to justify his thirst for revenge which ultimately feels out of place in a film that wants to organically move without poking too much into the system. I felt that entire episode was out of place and coming from a place of discomfort and angst.
A sharp, intelligent, sensitive film
Nevertheless, Chidambaram’s film, nuanced and controlled, is about the manifold ways in which identity is constructed in a society that tries its best to imprison and categorise. Till the end, these characters keep us at bay about their reasons, and even though the film does answer a few of these questions, it keeps a lot for the viewer to piece together by themselves. The viewer’s quest for information is gullible in this constant interrogative eye, where every single step is to be indexed.
Balan the Boy tells a specific story- a distinct tale of motherhood set in modern-day India- and unpacks a terrifying landscape where the woman finds herself in constant danger. Here, there is no one saving her and her child. She is her own saviour, and she chooses what she thinks is best. When the invisible socio-political rules become a sort of imprisonment, Amma chooses to be a vagabond with her son. The two of them can face the world as long as they are together. In their shared, wrenching connection, Balan the Boy triumphs. This is a sharp and intelligent piece of filmmaking, a story that allows the viewer to see the world– and in reflection, themselves– anew. That is a rare gift.