Watching the opening sequence of Ariyippu ( English Title: Declaration) terrified me. In the first few minutes, while the titular credits roll out, you are introduced to the atmosphere majority of the film would take place in a factory. Factories for me signify and symbolize everything questionable: wastage that leads to climate change and environmental damage, huge blocks of concrete and metal increasing their stronghold in the market each passing day, and idols of the horror of capitalism but it might be the excellence of the cinematography that Sanu Varghese puts in or it might be creative from director Mahesh Narayanan that as you see a production unit of safety gloves right from their genesis to their final stage, what you see is art.
Freshly released on Netflix, this Malayalam (the language used in the film is not limited to Malayalam there is Hindi ingrained throughout) film is the story of modern India. Set in Noida during the raging pandemic times, this story is about a Malayali couple trying to migrate out of the country for a better life and their lives as workers in a factory that manufactures latex-based safety gloves. As a manipulated video clip of the couple spreads amongst the co-workers of the factory, their lives turn around and tear apart everything that they have.
Ariyippu does what a movie should do: tell a story ingrained in the atmosphere that makes you question everything around you.
Ariyippu takes place in the chilly winters of Noida, a city whose urbanization is vapid and festering like a wound over everyone who dreams of migrating there for their goals. The cinematography of the film showcases the coldness that these characters feel toward themselves and towards each other. As Reshmi tries to convince Hareesh to move back to their hometown in Kerala after the video spreads and he denies it multiple times stating the same reason of bearing a little more for a life beyond that is happier, you visualize that the coldness of how affected Hareesh has become running after the money has reached a fever pitch and a major crack is being created. It is a lament to what urbanization, globalization, and the rat race towards money as a goal for life have taken away from us and left us with. There is no warm colour in this movie. Hareesh and Reshmi’s house, the factory, and even the color of the gloves, tones of sad and melancholic blue navigate the destructive story you are about to witness.
Ariyippu very cleverly situates the hierarchical power structure in our society throughout its timespan. It doesn’t dismantle it, which movies like Karnan or Kantara do, it rather shows you a more urban, more dangerous side to it. A side where monetary power and generational power thanks to the privilege of gathering wealth through social status have provided people is added into the farrago. Inside the factory, the power structure is seen: Reshmi the lowly worker who can’t complain or even have periods when she is working, the female manager of the washing unit who cannot question the evident fault in the products without any substantial evidence, the male supervisor whose autonomy and authority threatens the very integrity of the factory, to as simple as the driver who denies loading goods into the truck when Hareesh who is short staffed with loading people asks him to. Outside the factory power structures are architectured, the police and the commoner, the factory owner and the worker, the girl whose life is destroyed, and the factory owners who have the money to solve it.
Ariyippu is also the story of how common folks become puppets at the hands of the rich and powerful. Ones who have the money to solve any issue, silence, subjugate and often destroy to maintain their status. Towards the end of the movie, Hareesh falls prey to this power structure and confirms it, walking on a path that leads to nowhere which even he realizes but Reshmi breaks free, it is her declaration that she won’t choose money over herself or can anyone make her do that.
In watching and disliking or liking Ariyippu, you either conform or question your biases, beliefs, and understanding of the social fabric that shapes the situations we survive in. Ariyippu is not simply a thriller or not simply a film based on social awareness, its genre is a juncture of multiple branches.
Ariyippu is also a “social thriller” as it merges both these genres. You are at the edge of your seat for the entirety of the movie as you keep on guessing who is responsible for the video, who is in the video if not Reshmi and where did this manipulation in the video come from. A good amount of adrenaline rush comes each time you are faced with the possibility of finding the culprit but each time pointed towards a different direction. Ariyippu finds itself as a thriller of many stories, there is also the exposure of the factory scam of how the suppliers of the latex are providing used latex and thus creating cheaper yet substandard products. As the climax of the movie comes way towards the end of the film, I as someone who loves slow burns was utterly satisfied with how the crescendo had a clear path towards reaching it.
It also brings forth the abyss of the North-South divide in Indian society. When the policeman when Hareesh goes to file a complaint says, “Aaj kaal to log South ja rahe he job keliye to aap log yahan kya kaar rahe ho” (trans: Nowadays people are going to South India to find jobs what are you from the South doing here in Noida) or when the truck driver, who Hareesh suspects, yells at him “you bloody Madrasi”, you see clear references to how ingrained differences in our society become passed over eons of baseless discrimination and segregation marks.
Ariyippu questions patriarchy very subtly. One needs to unlearn their upbringing in chauvinism to hear the faint sounds that the movie makes towards this issue. Hareesh turns from an understanding husband for Reshmi to a domestic abuser maddened by the volcano of feelings he is sensing after the video leak. Reshmi, on the other hand, toughens up, even when she is falling apart she is walking forward. The difference in responses that Hareesh and Reshmi show and the way the society- police, co-workers, and friends- around treats Reshmi is a clear visualization of the classic case of victim blaming in a patriarchal society. Notably, the “society” around them is laden with men and all with opinions on how Reshmi is to be blamed. Ariyippu in there and maybe as a soothing finale showcases the solidarity of women towards each other (again despite how conventional chauvinistic cinema has shown women constantly engage in “cat-fights”) as Reshmi’s friend is constantly there for her in her ups and downs.
Ariyippu is an unadulterated look at modern urban Indian society and the many evils inside it. It doesn’t need a storyline full of grand mechanizations or the medium to exaggerate to do this. It tells you an intriguing yet very human and real story while cross-cutting across medium, genre, and treatment. Divya Prabha’s acting, her eyes, her expressions, and her body language tell a story that is the backbone of this film. In its 2-hour running time, Ariyippu makes you question how you tackle power structures in your surroundings, and how you react to anything in your atmosphere. It shows us facets of human nature and living we all face and unconsciously or consciously choose to conform to.