Ee.Ma.Yau.

Until the last half an hour everything was happening as I expected from the synopsis. Even after that there wasn't anything that was surprising. But the small details that was given throughout that time elevates the last events into a whole different level. The script, performances, cinematography, music, direction, everything is top notch. The ending was when I was again reminded that this is a Pellissery film, so it have to be filled with symbolisms, a lot of which I am yet to completely understand.

In Ee. Ma. Yau lijo has once again built a place and a set of great characters, who feel grounded to the setting they are placed .With an ensemble cast , lijo has made a film which is rich in atmospherics and dark humor. Strong performances across the board and Shyju Khalid's beautiful night frames has elevated this films to be one of the best films to come out of the Malayalam film industry recently.

Exactly at the 100th minute, Chemban Vinod Jose's troubled and dismayed (because he couldn't pull of what he promised few hours ago) character goes berserk at the prospect of not being able to send his late father off like a legend by giving him a respectful funeral with pomp and loudness and that's when you know that Lijo Jose Pellissery's Ee. Ma. Yau has arrived with its platter full of real-life connotations about how death is perceived by the onlookers who don't but realize that their wildest emotions can still wreak havoc affecting not only the dead but also those who they leave behind. TN.

Ee. Ma Yau. is Malayalam cinema at its best in recent times. Adapted from P.F.Mathews' 'Chavu Nilam', this out and out dark satire surrounding a death in a coastal village and the associated pandemonium it creates is an amazingly shot motion picture of true class! Making the film a technical benchmark on realistic making with some excellent natural light camerawork from Shyju Khalid, Lijo Jose Pellisery has done full justice to his role as director and quite so deserves the state awards bestowed to him for the same this year. Starting off as a light hearted satire based on a coastal Latin catholic family of Vavachan and his son Eesi, Ee. Ma. Yau gets much darker and haunting along the way, the entire proceedings reeking of the grim reaper's arrival. Barring the last 20 min, the howling wind, splashing waves and incessant downpour have been captured beautifully as the background amidst all the hullaballoo unleashed between vavachan's first and second wife, their families, the rude vicar and some crazy villagers. Dead bodies, cremation, cemetery, coffin and the last rites from the church take up majority of the proceedings, making this a unique and literally 'deadly' experience. Last 20 min of the movie belongs to Chemban Vinod Jose and Prasanth Pillai, the former for his amazing and effortless transition in to semi lunatic, self mumbling Eesi - the dutiful son of Vavachan who loses it towards the end - and the latter for his downright haunting BGM, something that echoes in to your mind even as the end credits roll by. Another performance worth lauding is from Pouly Valsan who played Eesi's mother, a seasoned and hilarious performance on so many levels. Ee. Ma. Yau is another surreal experience which I've missed watching in the big screen again - this one will go down as a true classic in Malayalam after quite some time!