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‘Declaration’: Review

By Namrata Joshi 2022-12-15T13:55:00+00:00

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Mahesh Narayanan’s Netflix pick-up plays out in Delhi as a couple deals with the fallout from a sex tape

Source: Netflix

‘Declaration’

Dir/scr: Mahesh Narayanan. India. 2022. 107mins

Malayalam filmmaker Mahesh Narayanan’s fourth feature film Declaration ( Ariyippu ) follows young couple Hareesh (Kunchacko Boban) and Reshmi (Divya Prabha) as they work in a medical glove manufacturing factory while waiting for visas that will allow them to move abroad for a better future. Their plans hit a rough patch when a doctored porn video featuring Reshmi is released on a WhatsApp group. From this distressing situation, Narayanan branches out to explore a range of interlaced social, economic and moral issues — working-class reality, immigration, patriarchy, misogyny—in an unwavering, engaging manner.

Narayanan builds the film like a languid thriller, allowing the pieces of the jigsaw to come together slowly

Declaration premiered in August at the Locarno International Film Festival, the first Indian film in 17 years to feature in its international competition section. It was snagged mid-October by Netflix, where it premieres on December 16, in one of the quickest recent direct-to-digital acquisitions for a festival-bound Indian film which landed just as Declaration had its Asian premiere at Busan.

It comes hot on the heels of Narayanan’s second and third films, C U Soon and Malik , that were released directly to Amazon Prime in September 2020 and July 2021 respectively. C U Soon is regarded as India’s first lockdown film, playing out entirely on computer and mobile screens aand filmed in the homes of its cast and crew. Similarly, Declaration was shot in and around Delhi during the third wave of Covid-19; in the film, the pandemic delays Hareeh and Reshmi’s move abroad.

And like C U Soon , Declaration also dwells on the virtual world; how the digital footprint is permanent and can come back to haunt and destroy people and relationships. This happens with the innocent Reshmi whose visa application video gets mixed with up a clip from a sex video shot with another woman in the same factory some years before. The burden of shared fears, worries, anxieties, anger and humiliation aside, the cracks deepen when Hareesh begins doubting Reshmi, and she feels betrayed by his lack of trust and support. Things come to a head when an offer is made to the two to cover up the past. They have to choose between fulfilling their dreams and ambitions, or taking the harder road of ethics and integrity.

The film marks some firsts for Narayanan. With his protagonists hailing from the southern state of Kerala, but stuck in the alien northern city of Delhi, the filmmaker gets an opportunity to showcase two separate Indian cultures. He also gets to work with a mix of languages — the film has dialogue in Malayalam and Hindi — and a terrific ensemble of actors from the north and south Indian film industries. In her first lead role, Prabha brings alive the inner strife of Reshmi, communicating a medley of emotions, resilience and strength through her eyes and body language. Boban, a popular star of Malayalam cinema and also one of the producers of the film, stands in contrast with his ineffectual aggression and ethical inanity as Hareesh.

Working with his cast, Narayanan builds the film like a languid thriller, allowing the pieces of the jigsaw to come together slowly. Sanu John Varughese’s camera lingers on grubby factories, tiny homes, miserable living and working conditions, banal chores; the mechanical loading of goods, the testing and washing of gloves. It also captures the Indian capital’s winter season; characteristically grey and hazy with pollution.

Declaration is an examination of a marriage, society and economy, but works best as a character study and morality tale with the woman at the core of the essential conflict; the upholder of truth and conscience and defender of her own dignity.

Production company: Kunchacko Boban Productions, Shebin Backer Productions, Moving Narratives

Worldwide distribution: Netflix

Producers: Mahesh Narayanan, Kunchacko Boban, Shebin Backer

Cinematography: Sanu John Varughese

Production design: Jothish Shankar

Editing: Mahesh Narayanan with Rahul Radhakrishnan

Music: Sushin Shyam

Main cast: Divya Prabha, Kunchacko Boban, Lovleen Misra, Danish Husain, Kannan Arunasalam

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Ariyippu (Declaration) movie review: Misogyny collides with corruption and alienation in a compelling COVID-time saga

In his fourth film as a director, Mahesh Narayanan depicts the oppression of women, including physical violence, at home and at work without ever seeking to titillate. Ariyippu features stellar performances by Divya Prabha and Kunchacko Boban.

Language: Malayalam and Hindi with Tamil

On a cold December morning in gray, wintry Uttar Pradesh, a worker from Kerala learns that someone has mixed footage of her with visuals of a woman whose face is partially camouflaged while performing a sexual act. Her husband discovers the doctored video being circulated in a WhatsApp group of a factory that produces medical gloves where they are both employed.

Hareesh (played by Kunchacko Boban ) seems confident that his wife Reshmi ( Divya Prabha ) is not the unidentifiable woman in the video. She is gutted because she knows she is not.

The setting is a suburban edge of Delhi in end-2020 when COVID had emptied out India’s streets and masks on human faces were the norm. In Mahesh Narayanan ’s new film Ariyippu (Declaration), masks fall off and true colours are revealed as Hareesh decides to fight for justice and Reshmi becomes embroiled in a battle not of her making.

Ariyippu is being premiered at the ongoing Locarno Film Festival. It is Mahesh’s fourth film as a director. He has also written, co-produced and co-edited it. The veteran editor turned to direction in 2017 with Take-Off , an account of Malayali nurses in ISIS captivity in Iraq. He has explored thorny political subjects in each of his films so far. C U Soon – a pioneering pandemic-time creation that was conceived and made entirely during lockdowns in 2020 – was about online strangers and offline exploitation. Malik dealt with inter-community relations and the games the establishment plays. Ariyippu initially appears to be a saga of Reshmi and Hareesh’s desperation to leave India for jobs abroad, but ends up being about the effect the fake video has on their marriage and work. Along the way, it explores multiple themes including the sense of alienation that blue-collar personnel experience when they cross borders even within the country, varying definitions of “greener pastures”, the manner in which India’s justice system is designed to be easily flipped against complainants, the constraints that age and poverty place on individuals, corruption in business and the casual moral corruption of the rich. At its heart, though, Ariyippu is about patriarchy and misogyny.

Kunchacko Boban has a disarming personality that he taps here, so it’s a while before we see that Hareesh’s outrage over the fake video is about his own ego and not concern for Reshmi. More than one man in Ariyippu , while referring to the exploitation of a woman, makes it about himself and his pain, relegating the woman to the margins. Hareesh openly trivialises Reshmi’s trauma and denies her agency every step of the way.

Ariyippu acknowledges the existence of women enablers, as any accurate representation of patriarchy would, but unlike the public discourse that focuses inexorably on such women and exaggerates their numbers, this film firmly spotlights female solidarity. Ariyippu overturns stereotypes in the way The Great Indian Kitchen did with its rare portrayal of a lonely daughter-in-law turning to her mother-in-law for advice. We hear that a woman in this plot was unjust to a woman in the past, but within the frames of this film, Reshmi receives nothing but kindness from women colleagues and in turn becomes a willing ally in a crusade undertaken by a senior factory staffer (Lovleen Mishra). Both women are the moral compass of the world they inhabit.

Women in Ariyippu are sources of consolation, inspiration and strength to each other. Reshmi’s friendship with her colleague Sujaya ( Athulya Ashadam ) is marked by a moving, unspoken understanding of mutual suffering. And when one woman digs her heels in over an important issue, she spurs Reshmi to stand her ground against Hareesh.

Among Ariyippu ’s acute observations of gender relations are truths we all know but shrug off: that when men clash, they exact revenge by degrading each other’s female relatives (as happens in this storyline) and community members; that patriarchy weaponises even innocuous actions and objects. A visit to a toilet is misunderstood in Ariyippu , a woman covering her face for her protection becomes a tool to shame another woman in a fake video.

No man in Ariyippu bears the grotesque markers of villainy that commercial cinema often resorts to. Here, we have sweet-looking Hareesh, the avuncular manager Suresh (Kannan Arunachalam) and the merciful factory owner ( Danish Husain ) – the sort of benign-looking chaps whose grievous acts of omission or commission society would gladly forgive. The film, however, is clear that it stands with the persecuted, not the persecutors or their facilitators.

Ariyippu depicts women’s oppression including physical abuse without ever seeking to titillate. Even in the video that sparks the pivotal conflict, sex is implied, not shown. In the film’s most shocking scene, when a man commits rape, we barely see the violence with our eyes.

It has taken a Kerala-based filmmaker to replicate the heterogeneity in language usage in the north in a way that northern filmmakers do not. Malayalam, Hindi and Tamil are efficiently knitted into Ariyippu’s dialogues since these are the languages naturally spoken by the principal players. One of the film’s most charming scenes features four characters in a room conversing with each other in three languages, not all of which they all understand. Communication is possible because the person in the position of greatest socio-economic privilege among them – the factory owner, a Hindi speaker – does not lord it over the rest. While this camaraderie is not reflective of the dominant reality in north India, it does reflect the best that the north can be. The worst is the man who tosses a slur at Hareesh.

In shedding his image as a romantic hero, Kunchacko Boban, who is also one of Ariyippu ’s producers, has exhibited an astonishing range in recent years, from playing an insecure spouse in How Old Are You? (2014), to a loveable villager helping a child realise his dream ( Kochavva Paulo Ayyappa Coelho , 2016) and a tribal rights activist in Pada (2022). Hareesh in Ariyippu is the most dislikeable of these men, yet Kunchacko inhabits him with a comfort that belies his innate charm. Even the character’s scruffiness wrestles to stay on top of the actor’s squeaky clean, scrubbed and washed persona. It’s a fascinating blend, one that makes Hareesh confusing to even a diehard feminist and thus, a triumph of both casting and acting.

Divya Prabha aces a taxing role that requires her to be inconsistent and conflicted, submissive and rebellious by turns. That a man was able to write Reshmi’s confusion without viewing her through a judgemental lens is impressive. Her varying stances in the matter of the video will best be grasped by women who know the burning rage that follows every single humiliation at the hands of sexual predators and discriminatory chauvinists, a rage tempered by the painful awareness that complaining or even reacting in any way usually brings with it consequences – for those wronged, not for the wrongdoer. Divya knows. And she moulds Reshmi into a dormant volcano, seemingly self-effacing, yet bristling with fury, frustration and a conscience.

The cast is filled with familiar faces and unknowns, all of whom feel like real people plucked out of life and planted in this film. Among the memories Ariyippu leaves us with are Lovleen Mishra’s earnestness, Athulya Ashadam’s speaking eyes and the truly awesome Sidharth Bhardwaj as a corrupt Noida policeman asking in all sincerity why Keralites would hunt for work in the north when northerners are heading southwards for opportunities these days.

Ariyippu is bookended by extended shots of the assembly line in the factory, underlining the mechanical relentlessness of capitalist enterprise notwithstanding the turbulence in the lives of humans involved. Mahesh Narayanan chronicles Reshmi and Hareesh’s story as if he was a silent, attentive bystander just inches away. Ariyippu draws us into their universe from its first moment with a prologue presenting a cellphone shoot of Reshmi playing on our screens while Hareesh is filming her. DoP Sanu John Varughese monitors the rhythm of the goings-on without any disruptive, flashy moves. This minimalist approach is embraced by Jothish Shankar’s production design, and Vishnu Govind and Sree Sankar’s sound design. I can think of only a couple of occasions in the narrative when understatement translates to the exclusion of too much information.

Few cinematographers have shot NCR in the throes of winter as starkly as Sanu has here_._ His compositions in this film are perhaps rivalled most closely by Angello Faccini’s cinematography for Ivan Ayr’s Meel Patthar (2021) and Avik Mukhopadhayay in Shoojit Sircar ’s October (2018). In the daytime, Sanu showcases the city’s exteriors and the factory with all colour and warmth sucked out of them, mirroring the protagonists’ humdrum routine and joylessness. He shifts to dreary lighting in the nights including in the shabby, choc a bloc insides of their home.

Slice-of-life cinema has seldom been more true to life than this.

Rating: 4.5 (out of 5 stars)

This review was published when Ariyippu was premiered at the Locarno Film Festival in August 2022. The film is currently at the International Film Festival of Kerala. It is now streaming on Netflix.

Anna M.M. Vetticad is an award-winning journalist and author of The Adventures of an Intrepid Film Critic. She specialises in the intersection of cinema with feminist and other socio-political concerns. Twitter: @annavetticad, Instagram: @annammvetticad, Facebook: AnnaMMVetticadOfficial

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‘Declaration’ Review: A Compromising Video Exposes Patriarchy and Corruption in This Standout Indian Drama

A potentially incriminating sex video strains an immigrant couple's relationship in a northern Indian PPE factory at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

By Naman Ramachandran

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The COVID-19 pandemic serves as backdrop for filmmaker Mahesh Narayanan to explore the fragile male ego in “ Declaration ,” an austere Indian drama that’s as far away from the macho posturing of the country’s robust commercial film industry as one can imagine. Set in the dead of winter, the film spends most of its time at a factory in India’s National Capital Region (Delhi and its surroundings) where medical latex gloves are manufactured, following married couple Hareesh ( Kunchacko Boban ) and Reshmi (Divya Prabha) as they go about their respective tasks of driver and product tester.

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High drama this isn’t. “Declaration” is a sober piece of cinema that lays out its themes gradually without judgment, even while depicting corruption in the manufacture of vital personal protective equipment that could potentially result in more deaths in a country already devastated by COVID-19 deaths. The film makes a virtue of routine and gradual variations from it, with the only constant being the mesmeric images of latex gloves on the assembly line, which goes on moving inexorably as the people around them diminish.

Reviewed online, Nov. 16, 2022. In Locarno, Busan, London, Goa film festivals. Running time: 107 MIN. (Original title: “Ariyippu”)

Production: (India) A Netflix release of a Moving Narratives production. Producers: Shebin Backer, Kunchacko Boban, Mahesh Narayanan.
Crew: Director, writer: Mahesh Narayanan. Camera: Sanu John Varughese. Editors: Mahesh Narayanan, Rahul Radhakrishnan.
With: Kunchacko Boban, Divyaprabha Pg, Lovleen Misra, Danish Hussain, Kannan Arunasalam, Faisal Malik, Kiran Peethambaran, Sidharth Bhardwaj, Dimpy Mishra.

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Ariyippu Review: An Understated But Telling Gem

Ariyuppu review: informed with disarming simplicity, narayanan's screenplay is also marked by psychological depth..

A still from Ariyippu .(courtesy: YouTube )

Cast : Kunchacko Boban, Faisal Malik, Danish Husain, Kannan Arunachalam, Sidharth Bhardwaj, Lovleen Mishra and Divya Prabha

Director: Mahesh Narayanan

Ratin g: Four stars (out of 5)

Mahesh Narayanan's fourth directorial venture, Ariyippu (Declaration), a Malayalam film with a liberal smattering of Hindi, opens with a video on a mobile phone. The face in the recorded footage - that of a woman employee of a medical gloves factory near Delhi - is hidden behind a surgical mask. Uncovering the identity of this woman is the focal point of a plot centred on a migrant couple placed under severe duress by an unfortunate turn of events.

This prelude to the story points to two facts. The obvious one is that Covid-19 is still raging and parts of the world are still under partial lockdowns. The not so obvious one is what the masks, real and figurative, conceal. Ariyippu , which has an array of characters whose masks disguise the truth that lie buried in their souls, lets the opacities and ambiguities linger until the very end.

Ariyippu , competing for the Suvarna Chakoram at the 27th International Film Festival of Kerala, is now streaming on Netflix. It is a tale of a moral crisis and its consequences on a Malayali couple who work in the medical gloves factory that serves as the film's principal setting.

The man, Hareesh (Kunchacko Boban, who is also a producer of the film along with Shebin Backer and Mahesh Narayanan), does night shifts at Neelam Rubber Factory, where his wife Reshmi (Divyaprabha), too, works. They hope to be in Delhi temporarily. They have applied for visas for jobs abroad. The pandemic intervenes and scuttles their plans.

To make matters worse, an old video surfaces and circulates quickly among the employees of the factory. It puts Hareesh and Reshmi's jobs and marriage on the line. They file a police complaint at the risk of overturning many apple carts, including their own.

Tension and intrigue abound in Ariyippu as a can of worms is opened. The unsuspecting couple tries to wriggle out of the tight spot that they are in. As they dig deeper into the mystery of the video, the more dirt and distress they unearth.

Narayanan builds up the tale one layer at a time, detailing the causes and fallouts of Reshmi and Hareesh's troubles. With their jobs under a cloud, recriminations multiply between the two. Cornered and assailed by confusion, Hareesh resorts to desperate steps only to aggravate matters for himself and his wife.

Neither speaks enough Hindi to be able to make their feelings clear to those that run the factory. Being migrants grappling with a serious language barrier is actually the least of their problems. The mess caused by the emergence of the video is infinitely more irksome. It threatens to stymie their plans for good.

The factory has a couple Malayalam-speaking senior employees, including the avuncular Suresh (Kannan Arunachalam), who double up as their interpreters and sounding boards when the need arises, but so intractable is the problem that it triggers anxiety and impulsive acts.

The masks that people wear not only conceal faces, but also disguise the realities of a workplace where much is amiss. Supervisor Smita (Lovleen Mishra) strives to uncover activities that appear to be at odds with the factory's quality control procedures.

As the story unfolds, Ariyippu brings to light the yawning gap between what is visible and what lies beneath the surface. Informed with disarming simplicity, Narayanan's screenplay is also marked by psychological depth, which aids in sustaining audience interest in the plight of the couple.

Besides extracting unwaveringly solid performances from Kunchacko Boban and Divyaprabha, Narayanan uses actors like Danish Husain, Faisal Malik, Saifudheen and Sidharth Bhardwaj (playing a cop) in impactful supporting roles. Lovleen Mishra fleshes out her part without having to overstretch herself.

The technicians at Narayanan's disposal are all their best in a film that allows them the scope to demonstrate their craft without taking recourse to self-conscious methods. The technical and visual vim and vigour of Narayanan's Take Off, C U Soon and Malik are replaced here with craftsmanship of a less flashy but no less effective kind.

Among the principal technicians is, of course, the director himself performing editing duties with Rahul Radhakrishnan. The cutting gives Ariyippu a sense of pace and a pulsating rhythm even when what is happening on the screen tilts towards the minimalistic.

Cinematographer Sanu John Varughese lights and shoots both the interiors and the external settings with an eye on what is particularly productive in highlighting the morally dodgy, emotionally stifling ambience. The roar of the factory machines, the wails of the factory siren, and other variegated ambient sounds accentuate the visual and aural atmospherics.

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Thanks to an approach that rests more on the inconspicuous than on the obtrusive, the backdrop - the badlands of Delhi NCR - is not just a convenient backdrop. It has a germane purpose - showing the audience the core of the shadowy environs that breed sleaze and skulduggery on one hand and despair and agony on the other.

Ariyippu is an understated but telling gem from a director at the top of his game. An absolute must watch.

Kunchacko Boban, Faisal Malik, Danish Husain, Kannan Arunachalam, Sidharth Bhardwaj, Lovleen Mishra and Divya Prabha

Ariyippu Trailer: Kunchacko Boban Malayalam Movie to Stream December 16 on Netflix

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Declaration (Ariyippu) Malayalam Movie Review | Netflix

Declaration (Ariyippu) Netflix Review: Ariyippu, Mahesh Narayanan’s fourth directorial effort, was released today on Netflix; we already know him from his previous work, which includes the greats C U Soon, Malik, and Take Off, all of which are considered gems of the Malayalam film industry.

People know him for his directing style, so I went in with high expectations, having enjoyed his previous films. So, let’s see if this movie meets the expectations or misses the chance that we see in this review .

The story of Ariyippu follows the life of a Malayali couple named Hareesh and Reshmi from Kerala, but now they are in Noida, where they work in gloves manufacturing factories and work at different departments there. This couple intended to film aboard, but their plans were derailed by COVID. So, for their work experience, they secretly shot a video about their work, but one day, as is customary, Hareesh checking the video finds something that completely affects their lives, which you will see after watching the film, as I do not want to give any spoilers.

As we can see, the runtime of this film is around 1 hour and 45 minutes, which is one of its plus points because it doesn’t feel boring with storytelling, while the story still acts as a slow burn, which means it connects with the viewers gradually as the director knows.

For the acting purpose, the actor who played Hareesh, named Knchacko Boban, had done a great job, which felt like we saw the real story of that person and how society affected his life. Other actors also did a great job. One more point, from people: we also see our favorite panchayat actor, Faisal Malik, which feels great to see him.

Review : The Beast of Bangalore Indian Predator Review: Netflix Does It Again

Finally, I feel like the climax is rushed, which means the director wants to finish this movie as soon as possible, which I believe is one of the negative points, as I had high expectations for the ending, which it delivered, but in a hurry, as the director wants to finish this movie in a limited amount of time otherwise everything looks great.

Rating: 3/5

The cinematography in this film is adequate, and the music playing in the background gives us the impression that we are watching the couple’s real-life story. At the very least, I enjoyed this film; like Mahesh Sir’s other films, I rate it 3/5 stars.

If you liked this review and feel like you want to tell me something or add something, then let me know in the comment box.

An Engineer By Profession, Moviegeek By Passion. Been Watching and Reviewing Films and Shows From Last 7 Years. Action Movies are in my Blood and Covering the same from last 7 Years.

Aavesham (2024) movie review, parasyte the grey review | netflix, flex x cop review | disney.

not worth 3 rating. slower than a tortoise. most of the time people are going from point a to be.

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Movie review | Ariyippu: A declaration of war between conscience and survival

Before a tinge of light could hit the screen, Mahesh Narayanan makes the most important declaration about Ariyippu. He throws at us the numerous festivals this movie has run through, thereby almost warning the audience to not expect an edge-of-the-seat-thriller like his 'C U Soon' or 'Take-Off'. Yet, in more ways than one, Mahesh delivers his most satisfying film with Ariyippu.

Reshmi (Divya Prabha) and Hareesh (Kunchacko Boban) are a couple from Kerala who works in a medical glove manufacturing factory in the National Capital Region (NCR). For them, the job is a stepping stone towards a life outside India. The movie opens with Hareesh shooting a 'skill video' of Reshmi, a prerequisite for acquiring a job visa.

However, COVID decides to put a dampener on things, forcing the couple to hang on to their 'transit' job indefinitely. With almost all their money tied up with the visa agency, the couple begins to list their options. But, Hareesh gets into a scuffle with an employee at the factory, which leads to an edited version of Reshmi's skill video, spliced together with that of a woman engaging in a sexual act in the factory, being circulated in the organisation's WhatsApp group. How Reshmi and Hareesh navigate the challenges that follow this episode forms the crux of Ariyippu.

Kunchacko Boban-starrer ‘Ariyippu’ to screen at 75th Locarno Film festival

‘Ariyippu’ starring Kunchacko Boban to release directly on Netflix

The director's move to set the story in an industrial town, where life, much like the constantly running assembly line of latex gloves, is mechanical and pale, evokes a sense of monotony and the need to escape this circle as soon as possible.

Ariyippu holds a mirror to the morality and conscience of the human mind. It is a battle between doing what is right and the innate need to lead a better life, which often exposes the flawed morality of the most perfect race on this planet.

Trust is another element Mahesh Narayanan toys with in Ariyippu. The video drives a wedge between the couple's relationship, with Hareesh being conflicted internally while wanting to believe it's not his wife in it. However, his patriarchial conditioning and society's general notion about such incidents pushes him to the dark side. Hareesh embarks on a silent mission to find out the culprits behind the video. However, he is often like a dog chasing a car. He has little to no clarity regarding what to do if he gets his hands on them.

While the movie may seem like an attempt to salvage one's image in society from the outside, Ariyippu, under all those layers, is a 'note-to-self'.

The sub-plot in Ariyippu does a decent job of complimenting and finally merging with the main theme.

Through his carefully-planned frames, Mahesh shines a light on the living conditions of migrants, especially from the south and the northeast, in states like Delhi.

Ariyippu is equally a scathing indictment of the evils of the class system prevalent in this country, as it is an in-depth study of the human psyche.

The symbolism of Reshmi's ring to portray her shackles seemed a little too on the nose. Certain frames overstayed their welcome. But, for a festival movie, Ariyippu's editing is crisp. Then again, Mahesh Narayanan's technical prowess has never been in question.

Sanu Varghese's cinematography infuses realism into Mahesh's seemingly simple narrative. He has beautifully captured the rawness of the outskirts of Delhi.

It must have been just another day at the office for Sushin Shyam, who has neatly delivered what was asked of him.

Acclaimed Malayalam film 'Ariyippu' to release on Netflix

Performances – The highlight by a mile

The intensity of Hareesh and Reshmi is what truly sells this movie. Kunchacko Boban as Hareesh is pure class. The ease with which he portrays the character's internal conflict, prejudices and guilt was a joy to witness. While Mollywood is busy celebrating 2022 as Mammootty's year, Kunchacko has been the sleeper hit with his brilliant outings in Nna Thaan Case Kodu and Pada. His choice of scripts has been on point for some time now and this performance has only added to his sheen.

Divya Prabha is a wonder in Ariyippu. It's about time she got full-length roles like Reshmi. Despite being in the centre of all that chaos, you never once see Reshmi being overwhelmed by her emotions. Thirty minutes into the movie and Reshmi convinces you that she's made way too many sacrifices for her to be jilted by an edited video. Divya's performance is measured from start to end.

The scene where Hareesh and Reshmi get into a quarrel over his suspicion is one of the best scenes in the movie, despite the element of domestic violence, due to the sheer originality of their performances.

Kannan Arunachalam as Suresh has rendered his role quite well. With perfect Hindi diction, he is pleasantly believable as the Tamilian who has lived the majority of his life among northerners.

Once again, do not wait for something big to happen in Ariyippu. Sit back and walk with the characters to the declaration.

Ariyippu is streaming on Netflix.

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‘Declaration’ (Ariyippu) Netflix Movie Review - An Absorbing and Understated Drama

In Declaration (or Ariyippu), writer-director Mahesh Narayanan creates explosive tension and excitement through minor gestures. Take the scene where Hareesh (Kunchacko Boban) is told on the phone about a "non-veg" video. The caller asks Hareesh to check his WhatsApp, but all he sees are text messages. He is then asked to see someone's status, but that, too, has disappeared. In the end, the man sends the video to Hareesh, and he comes to know what's exactly going on. Just see how Narayanan, through delays, increases the suspense and keeps us guessing about the contents of the video.

That video is what we see during the opening of Declaration (or rather, one version of it). The clip features Hareesh's wife, Reshmi (Divya Prabha), performing her duties at the Neelam Rubber Factory. It's shot for the purpose of obtaining a visa. The original version consists of Reshmi doing her work. In the "non-veg" version, there is sexual content. Declaration is so low-key that the video doesn't go viral (the movie doesn't divide the screen into multiple small boxes consisting of many people's reactions). Instead, it's seen by a few people on the Internet. But "few" is still a sufficiently large number, and it includes all the other factory workers.

Of course, everybody assumes that it's Reshmi giving the blowjob in the video. Is that woman really her? Notice how Narayanan keeps us in the dark for a short while when Reshmi sees the video for the first time. Since her face is covered with a mask (the movie takes place during lockdown), we are unable to discern her reaction. Is she shocked, disgusted or embarrassed? Declaration is not interested in concealing this information. In the following scene, when Reshmi talks to Hareesh, we are told she is not the woman in the video.

What Declaration is interested in showing us is how an incident like this turns somebody's life upside down. How it tests the strength of a relationship and how it reveals things about people. At first, Hareesh shows determination to learn the truth and refuses to withdraw his complaint from the police station. Reshmi, on the other hand, tells Hareesh to leave the matter and suggests going back to Kerala. You can't blame her as she is the one who undergoes humiliation. The other men don't need to open their mouths to shame her. Their gaze is sufficient. Observe how a police inspector and an agency worker look at Reshmi and make her uncomfortable.

Reshmi somehow tolerates those male characters. But when her husband begins to doubt her, the relationship crumbles. From this point onwards, the husband and wife are never seen on the same wavelength. She even leaves her house and goes to stay somewhere else. When the factory owner's wife presents them with a lucrative deal, he accepts it without hassle, but she rejects the offer. Their disagreeable romantic state is reflected in two shots. In one of them, Reshmi briskly moves forward while Hareesh struggles to keep up with her. In the second one, we see the two of them walking in different directions. This second scene echoes in the end when Hareesh and Reshmi work in different locations.

In one of the scenes, in the beginning, Reshmi is unable to properly test the gloves (she has no idea how to reduce the air pressure). What this means is that she might be working in the glove factory but has yet to become a part of it. Other workers function mechanically like those lines of plastic hands with gloves. Like them, Reshmi has to become a cog in the machine to belong in the factory. And cog she becomes as we watch her smoothly testing the gloves - like a machine, like her co-workers - in the end.

Narayanan effortlessly inserts the North-South conversation in his text. A character says to a South Indian old man how he always takes "apne gaanv waalon ka" side. A police inspector says, "Tum dono ek hi gaanv se ho, aapas mein problem sulajha lo." This subtle discrimination becomes more direct when a character angrily says, "Bloody South Indian." But this angry remark is not heard loudly. Remember, this is a low-key film where even a struggle between a husband and wife is not expressed with a violent shaky cam.

As for the film's title, Declaration, it's turned into both a problem and a solution. When Hareesh and Reshmi sign the declaration at the visa office, they find themselves in a troubling situation. When action is taken against a scam at the factory, a declaration is put up on the notice board. That piece of paper serves as a mark of triumph. It's from here Reshmi gets the idea of demanding her own declaration to be put up on the notice board stating her innocence. The movie ends on a win-win note, but so much is lost along the way. Narayanan's film is absorbing and understated.

Final Score- [9/10] Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter Publisher at Midgard Times

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Ariyippu: Netflix Buys Kunchacko Boban Malayalam Movie From Director Mahesh Narayanan

Ariyippu, aka declaration, is playing at film festivals in locarno, london, busan, and marrakech..

Photo Credit: Netflix

Kunchacko Boban and Divya Prabha in Ariyippu

Ariyippu’s world premiere was at Locarno in August
Film is about a Malayali couple working near Delhi
Netflix hasn’t set a release date for Ariyippu

Ariyippu — the Mahesh Narayanan film with Kunchacko Boban and Divya Prabha in the lead — is now a Netflix original, the world's biggest subscription-based video streaming service announced Wednesday. Known as Declaration in English, the Malayalam-language movie is about a struggling Kerala couple who work in a medical gloves factory near Delhi, who dream of migrating out of the country for a better life. But when an old video resurfaces among the factory workers during the COVID-19 lockdowns, it opens up a pandora's box that threatens the couple's jobs and marriage.

Netflix has not set a release date, but said Ariyippu is “coming soon”. Ariyippu has been making the film festival rounds since August, when it premiered at Switzerland's Locarno Film Festival and broke India's 17-year-long drought in the international competition section. Ariyippu is currently playing at the BFI London Film Festival in the UK, and debuts Wednesday at South Korea's Busan International Film Festival in the A Window on Asian Cinema section.

It will go to the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival in late October, before the Marrakech International Film Festival in Morocco in November. Ariyippu also has a nomination at the 2022 Asia Pacific Screen Awards, to be held November 11 in Gold Coast, Australia.

“With the ongoing recognition and love for our film, we are extremely honoured that Netflix is bringing the film as direct-to-digital globally which will always help cinephiles across the world to experience the film very soon,” Narayanan, who's also the writer, editor, and producer on Ariyippu, said in a prepared statement.

Ariyippu is a production of Shebin Backer Productions, Kunchako Boban Productions, and Narayanan's Moving Narratives. Sushin Shyam (Malik, Kumbalangi Nights ) is the music composer on Ariyippu. Sanu John Varughese (Aarkkariyam) is the director of photography.

“At Netflix, we are constantly working towards bringing the most entertaining and compelling stories,” Netflix India's VP of content, Monika Shergill , said. “We are excited to bring Ariyippu (Declaration), a powerful film on the complex theme of a man-woman relationship told by the acclaimed Mahesh Narayanan, along with stellar performances by Divya Prabha and Kunchacko Boban. Just like Minnal Murali won immense love across the world, we want our members to be won over by the dramatic universe of Ariyippu on Netflix.”

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Ariyippu is “coming soon” to Netflix in India and around the world.

Release Date 16 December 2022
Language Malayalam
Genre Drama
Cast Kunchacko Boban, Divya Prabha, Danish Husain, Loveleen Mishra, Faizal Malik, Kannan Arunasalam, Kiran Peethambaran, Sidharth Bhardwaj
Director Mahesh Narayanan
Producer Shebin Backer, Kunchacko Boban, Mahesh Narayanan

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