Spoiler alert.
Muhammad Musthafa’s directorial debut Kappela starring Anna Ben, Sreenath Bhasi and Roshan Mathew as Jessy, Roy and Vishnu respectively, was a breath of fresh air.
A romantic thriller, the film’s non-linear narrative moves so seamlessly that even when it is forgotten, the shift back to the present or going into the past does not disrupt its flow. If anything, the non-linear narrative proves to be essential to the film that relies on smaller, seemingly insignificant details, which Musthafa finally manages to tie up beautifully.
His commitment to respecting the intelligence of his audience is evident in his reliance on showing rather than telling. What seems almost natural, but turns out to be extremely crucial, to this manner of storytelling is its sensitivity especially to the characters that it has chosen to portray.
Jessy is a young adult all of 18 or 20 from a small town in Poovarmala in the hills of the Western Ghats, with a fascination for the ocean. Her story is the result of one mistaken wrong number phone call. The number she accidentally dials belongs to Vishnu, an auto driver. Thus begins the story of what seems to be their phone call romance.
The time comes when Jessy’s parents want to get her married to a man (Benny) she has no particular feelings for and it is decided that Jessy and Benny are to be engaged soon. All the while, the phone call romance has only built deeper roots, so when Jessy’s parents and younger sister leave for a day to invite relatives, it is the perfect opportunity for her to take a trip to Kozhikode and meet Vishnu to see if what they have is real – her chance at a happily ever after.
When Jessy and Vishnu separately reach the Kozhikode bus terminus and Jessy is frantically calling Vishnu’s phone for some sign that he is a real existing person, there is a brief scuffle that lands at Vishnu’s feet and sends his phone sliding across the floor of the bus terminus. A young man takes the opportunity arising out of the chaos to pocket the fallen phone and slip away.
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Roy, seeing him pocket it and slink away follows him and uses his own powers of intimidation to make the phone his. At this point the film goes back to show how Roy got to the Kozhikode bus terminus. Roy’s character is one of a “small-town rowdy” – unemployed, intimidating and one who will not be bothered by the cops for the trouble he creates. Roy is however, a rowdy with a heart – he intimidates the bad guys (beats them up even) to protect the “weak”. Despite this the character doesn’t come across as a vigilante with a saviour complex.
The three lives intersect at the bus terminus in Kozhikode when Roy ends up with Vishnu’s phone pretending to be him with Jessy, but the real Vishnu soon finds the two of them. Roy, in a pretence of wanting to return the stolen phone to Jessy, gives it back and leaves only to linger and follow the couple through the day.
The film takes an unexpected turn when Vishnu’s real identity is revealed and Roy’s suspicion about him turns out to be true. Vishnu turns out to be a pimp who often attempts this with women. Roy manages to follow him to the lodge where he has taken Jessy and after the only dramatic fight sequence in the film, “saves” Jessy and takes her back to the bus terminus so that she is able to get home.
The sensitivity in the storytelling of this film was in its refusal to use this incident as an opportunity to judge Jessy for the situation that she found herself in. The incident did not lead to a dramatic change in her character. She was not broken. Instead like most of us, she learnt to take this disastrous “first date” in stride and move on.
The fact that Roy did not have a saviour complex and understood his own inability to console her and yet stood by her silently redeemed the use of the cliched trope of the man coming to the woman’s rescue. In fact, going a step further, Roy puts his “cousin” Annie on the phone with Jessy and when Annie says “We might take time to identify the right people” the film acknowledges a young woman’s curiosity in the affairs of romance without blaming her for it.
Kappela is an empathetic film where women are able to deal with the unplanned consequences of their choices without needing to be saved – much like the women we all are (and know).
If you made Tara Brahme pick between the ocean and the mountains, she would show you pictures of her cats.