Lijo Jose Pellissery's Malayalam-language film "Jallikattu", which had its world premiere at the ongoing 44th Toronto International Festival (TIFF), is an unflinching, pulse-pounding depiction of the savagery that humanity is capable of unleashing when faced with a crisis.
The film hinges on a water buffalo that escapes its planned slaughter in the nick of time and runs amok. The runaway animal leaves a trail of destruction, which triggers unsettling pandemonium in a remote Kerala village and exposes the community's social and political fault-lines.
The film's director is, however, guarded in accepting an overt political reading of Jallikattu, but he is quick to add that "once I finish a film, I leave it to the audience to derive any interpretation they like." Pellissery says: "If I have to explain everything, then why would I make the film at all?"
The biggest challenge during the making of "Jallikattu", Pellissery says, was that "we had to keep the animal in the centre of the action. He adds: VFX wasn't an option because that would have been too expensive. Moreover, I never find the VFX that is used to bring animals alive on the screen convincing. So, we had to strike a balance between the real animal and animatronics."