Ee Ma Yau Review: this movie would leave you spellbound

The climax portions of Lijo Jose Pellissery’s Ee Ma Yau are a surreal experience one should never miss from a theatre. It sort of makes you get immersed in the story telling making you feel the angst of the characters. Ee Ma Yau is talking about a funeral in a seaside village and through this story we get to see an exploration of characters of different behaviour. At a time Malayalam movie industry is taking a leap by making content driven movies like Sudani from Nigeria and Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum, Lijo Jose Pellissery joins the league through Ee Ma Yau.

Vavachan, a chavittunadakam artist is an important character. He is an irresponsible father figure who interestingly has an emotional bond with his son Eeshi. Eeshi has promised his father that he will make the funeral ceremony of his father a grand one. Ee Ma Yau shows us what exactly happens during the funeral of Vavachan.

The character detailing is perhaps the best thing about this movie. There was a movie named Shavam made by Don Palathara. But LJP and PF Mathews have managed to push the envelope further by including a lot of things to give layers to this story. A murder is considered as a normal death and a normal death is exaggerated as a suspicious death. A man who was like a sensible guy becomes a woman bitching persona the moment his male ego gets hurt, the mother character is still thinking about the dowry they couldn’t get, people squeezing you eyeing your emotional vulnerability and a priest who couldn’t control his ego etc are among the numerous shades one can see in this one movie.

Ayyappan played by Vinayakan is arguably the most likeable character in the lot. Even after being largely selfless, Vinayakan manages to bring realness into that character. The climax of the movie was owned by a terrific Chemban Vinod Jose.Pauly Valsan becomes more of an impeccable vocal presence as we get to see less of her face and more of her scream. Dileesh Pothan as the egoistic priest was really good. Kainakari Thankaraj was convincing as Vavachan. Krishna Padmakumar, Bitto Davis etc. are the other main actors in this film.

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This is arguably the best work of Lijo Jose Pellissery. While the other movies where kind of a testament for the fact that it was completely a directors film, here Lijo has the backup of a script that has layers and subtle references against many things. The spoon feeding is not happening here. The post climax scene where we see the dead men waiting to get shifted to the places they belonged to stirs a lot of questions inside your head. Shyju Khalid’s visuals add rawness to the making. Single long shots are used in this movie too by Lijo Jose Pellissery. The sarcasm in the writing of PF Mathews is under a layer of practical human behaviour. The minimal music comes out only at the very end of the movie and the feel it gives is magical.

Ee Ma Yau is a peculiar theatrical experience that clarifies why Lijo Jose Pellissery is an assuring film maker for the Malayalam movie industry. His craft here is terrific and the output would leave you spellbound.