Fahadh Faasil’s Malik: Story About A Powerful Man, And Many Fearless Women Set Against The Backdrop Of Beemapally Police Shooting

Different aspects of a movie are loved by different people. Some may love the music, some the cinematography and some the flow of the story. But to me, it is the performance of the actors that is of the utmost importance. And this movie is a big treat for people like me.

Fahadh Faasil is already an internationally acclaimed actor. And even though this is the first time that he has acted in a political crime genre, he pulls it off with the usual ease that we have seen him do time and again. In the case of the other actors in the movie, who may not be familiar to the national and international audience, they stun you too. Nimisha Sajayan’s extraordinary portrayal of Roselyn, a headstrong and intelligent woman who does not shy away from taking on the system, however powerful it may be, Dileesh Pothan playing the venomous antagonist Aboobacker, Joju George playing a civil servant with a conscience, but who is helpless as part of the system, Vinay Forrt, Salim Kumar, Indrans, all established actors of the Malayalam cinema, give us brilliant performances. But what is extraordinary, but not uncommon in the Malayalam industry, is the care with which even the smallest characters are treated with such immense care. This we see in the performances of Sanal Aman or Freddy, or the unnamed jail doctor, to even the common people of Ramadapally.

The movie revolves around Ahmed Ali Sulaiman Malik, or Ali Ikka, a leader/patriarch for the people in Ramadapalli, a Muslim majority coastal region in Kerala, constituting mainly of fishermen families. We see his assent from a small-time smuggler to a godfather-esque figure for his people.

The movie is also a fictional account of the events surrounding the unprovoked police firing at a crowd of people in Beemapally in Kerala, which resulted in the death of six people including a young boy.

On 17^th May 2009, between 2:30 pm and 3:00 pm, the Kerala police shot and killed six Muslim residents, and injuring 52 others. Although the state narrative states that the police was trying the protect the Christian population of Cheriyathura, the shooting occurred in the neighbourhood of Beemapally, without any proof of provocation from the residents. There were no complaints of attack by the people of Cheriyathura either, until a couple of days later when the Church also joined the state narrative.

Although this incident is the second-largest police shooting in the history of Kerala since 1957, compared to the uproar created by the people of the state against other political events, this incident has received very little attention. Most popular news channels have narrated the official versions of the events although studies conducted by human rights groups paint a different picture. The state has not taken any severe actions against the police officers who were responsible for the killing and injury of the residents.

The report of the judicial commission headed by Justice Ramakrishnan, on the incident, was shelved by the then ruling LDF Government. The Subsequent UDF government also did not pursue the matter.

There has been a lot of discussion regarding the way in which this event has been fictionalized in the movie. The addition of a wicked Muslim MLA to the story has been criticized widely by a section of the audience due to fears that it wrongly shows a few individuals as responsible for the unprovoked shooting by the police as opposed to the systemic bias towards the community which is seen as the real reason behind the events. Ali Ikka as the powerful leader, the Collector, and the MLA are all Muslims in the movie, although in reality, there were no such persons in power at that time, in Beemapally.

Although the argument has some merit, we cannot deny the fact that the movie has definitely opened up conversations about the events in Beemapally which was all but forgotten. Openly criticizing the ruling government may have seen the Censor Board taking some liberties on the editing table. But the movie has managed to come out and start discussions. It is now our responsibility to take the conversation forward, in the right direction.

Some have also criticized the movie for being Islamophobic. As a political crime drama, the character could be of any religion and that religion would have been seen in a negative light. But such is the nature of politics and political dramas.

The movie is successful in showing how easily the sentiments of the people are manipulated by those in power, for their personal gains. With the current state of affairs, we cannot deny that this is something that we need help embedding in our collective conscience.

All in all, this movie is worth all the buzz that it has created.