The film stars KB Ganesh Kumar, Gokul Suresh, Aju Varghese, Anarkali Marikar. It works because of the performances and because the filmmaking energy is so contagious.
Let me begin with a disclaimer. One part of Gaganachari is based on references to a particular era of Malayalam cinema, so if – like me – you are not 100 per cent tuned into that period of pop culture, your enjoyment of this movie is likely to be diminished. But the other part of Gaganachari – a dystopian satire in the form of a mockumentary – should work pretty well for audiences from all over. But again, another disclaimer. Krishand is the executive producer, and when his name appeared in the opening credits, I was instantly reminded of his film Aavasavyuham, which dealt with eco-issues in the mockumentary format. Gaganachari doesn’t reach that level of brilliance, it doesn’t aim for that level of subversion of form and content. Gaganachari deals with issues, too – but they are fairly simplistic and exist mostly on the surface. The film works because of the comic performances and because the filmmaking energy is so contagious.
At a time when a post-apocalyptic world is imagined mostly along Hollywood lines (deserts and so forth), director and co-writer Arun Chandu springs a beautiful and very imaginative surprise. (Siva Sai is the other writer.) This dystopia – set in the 2040s – is drenched in water. Cyclones and rainfall have flooded Kerala, and we see submerged stadiums and paddy fields. At once, the sci-fi feels like it belongs here like it is our own. Even outside Earth, the space station plays Malayalam patriotic songs and the astronauts grumble like regular office employees about not getting leave and how bad the idli-s are. For the first forty-five minutes or so, we get world-building. We get an idea of the society, a big war that has occurred, the secret nightlife that has sprung up after the Internet has been banned, the fact that beef has been replaced by something made from non-cow sources and is called “geef”…
Into this “world”, a documentary crew sets out to record the life of Victor (KB Ganesh Kumar), a former army man, a national hero, and a renowned alien hunter. He has built a bunker with devices like a sleeping pod, and he lives with two younger men: Allen (Gokul Suresh) and Vaibhav (Aju Varghese). The fourth occupant of this bunker is an AI presence named Raghava.
Unlike Aavasavyuham, where the tone is surreal, Gaganachari settles quickly into a goofy zone, and the three actors are wonderfully nuts in their own bizarre ways. The natural state of this world is the mild absurdity of a weed-induced dream. Nothing is over the top, and the jokes never call attention to themselves – and this makes the goings-on even funnier. The old-style happy-making sitar music in the background, when Allen learns something about Victor, had me in splits.
And then, an alien appears in the form of Anarkali Marikar – and Gaganachari begins to resemble E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial. A strange creature is stranded on Earth. It is in danger. It needs to be sent back home. And – like in E.T. – there’s even a kiss induced by an old movie. Gaganachari picks up many issues: fuel price hike, oppressive Brahminism and right wing-ism, moral policing, man being his own worst enemy, and so forth. But the ones that register best are the issues woven around the alien.
As Allen falls for the alien, the interspecies relationship mirrors an inter-caste (or any other) relationship that is frowned upon by a conservative society. Also, when Victor was hunting aliens, he appears to have seen creatures that looked like monsters. But here’s one that looks like a beautiful woman. Suddenly, the “national hero” Victor begins to look like a liar, someone who exaggerated his exploits. Gaganachari makes clever use of spaces and colours, cardboard motion paintings and odd props like cat food (there’s a great payoff at the end). Cinematographer Surjith Pai does not try to hide the low-budget nature of the project, and this non-polished “look” is a big plus.
The film isn’t consistent. After a while, the story runs out of steam and seems in no hurry to get to any particular point. When we witness some sort of ritual meant to control the alien, it seems to come out of nowhere – this plot point and the people behind it aren’t built up very convincingly. Yes, human nature is to exploit, control, and dominate – but this film is too slight to accommodate these big themes. But in the end, I did not find any of this a major deal-breaker. Gaganachari is a smart, contained film that can be seen as a series of amusing people doing amusing things, and sometimes that’s more than enough.
