The Psychological Narratives in Jallikattu -A Film by Lijo Jose Pellissery

The film Jallikattu by Lijo J Pellissery explores the psychological domains of human actions. It has different ideas stemmed into its body – the Christian concept of sin, Hindu beliefs of death and redemption, the concept of human evolution, and some elements of psychology and parapsychology as well. It is an amalgam of science, religion, and superstition, which adeptly represents the modern man's psyche. This study aims at analyzing various distinctive yet connected psychological narratives in the film Jallikattu. The image of the buffalo is a symbol that travels from known to unknown, from conscious to unconscious, combining various elements of the movie into an organic unity of a violent hunt.

For Jung the symbol is a psychological image that encapsulates the current psychological situation. As such, it is at least partly comprehensible to the conscious part of the psyche. However, it also contains a strong unconscious component and it is this proximity to the unconscious that gives the symbol its affective charge and power. Put another way: the sign points to (or is indexical of) something that consciousness can readily comprehend, while the symbol provides a psychological insight that consciousness needs to comprehend. In this model the link between signifier and signified can be, at best, tenuous. (Jungian Film Studies, P-70)

The film's narrative is based on the idea that repressed desires in the psyche come out only at the right time when society's laws do not hold them back. The fundamental nature of the human mind is dark- represented by the nighttime during which even the most law-abiding citizen becomes a hunter. He goes back to the primitive era in which his forefathers hunted game in the primeval forests. Those forests still exist in our psyche, and social laws, norms, and convention form the rope which holds back our animal instincts that roam in them. The whole film is a journey into the human mind and behavior. What is appreciable is the approach of the director towards the identification of the beast in every human. Despite being didactic, the director just places before the audience the incidents on a buffalo hunt, which lasted for a day and night.

The very first scene itself shows the attitude of the women to men - Sophie asks the man who walks behind her to walk in front of her. She feels that the man behind her had different intentions. The women of Lijo Pellissery's film world look at men with contempt- they can stay calm cooking tapioca while their men are running violently to catch the beast. They find men lascivious and happily gossip about them. The attitude of women to Kalan Varki is an example of how society sees an unmarried man. He may be living a saint's life, but the people will often see him as passionate. But to them, Sophie, his sister, is also immoral as she had an affair with a physical education teacher.

The only prominent female character in the film is worth watching. She represents the treacherous woman who never considers love as divine and looks for only masculine power and sexual gratification in her lovers. She is ready to forsake her first lover and receive a traitor without a blemish in her conscience. The anger she shows towards the amorous advances of the latter seems to be merely a cover for her dark desires for him. She immediately accepts him on his day of victory and asks him to bring meat on that night after he physically assaulted her. This may be a proper representation of the primeval womanhood who has no social norms to hold her back in accepting anyone whom she desires. The film shows that those instincts are still influential in her. She is represented not as a positive force that pulls man towards socialization, instead she acts as a catalyst to man's innate desires for kill and sex. She just co-operates in the hunt and forms an integral part of it. She is not a game or a victim, but the hunter herself.

The Christian concept of original sin has given the film a different coloring, which the director may or may not have desired to bring in. The whole hunting of the buffalo is prompted and fueled by other motives. But the hunt is a way of proving masculinity before the female forever hunter. Thus, a woman becomes the motive for the kill. His desire for Sophie fuels the treachery of Antony to Kuttachan, and Kuttachan reaches the village not only to shoot the buffalo but to win back his lover Sophie.

Kuttachan is an image of the game hunted down for Sophie. He is the object of her desires, but later she rejects him at his failure to win society's favor and later shifts his love to Antony, who captures the buffalo and becomes the hero. His betrayal of his friend Kuttachan is well known to many, including Varki. Sophie accepts him despite this knowledge, as to her affection always shifts to the victor. Thus, Kuttachan and Antony both seek an identity of their own- Kuttachan now wants to fulfill his revenge and satisfy his pride, while Antony wants to win Sophie by proving his merit to her and the whole village. But to achieve this, he is ready to take any shortcuts, as his conscience is not strong enough to control him. But Kuttachan, even though he has been sentenced for smuggling sandalwood and cultivating marijuana, seems to be a better person than Antony.

The film opens with many eyes opening at the night when the clock ticks away. The eyes seem to be opening to the primitivity. The clock's ticking is accompanied by breathing, which can't be distinguished as animal or human. The next shot pictures small insects and represents life in nature. Then morning starts with the sound of a musical instrument, which seems to be the sound of a knife chopping meat. All these premonitions point to the arousal of animal instincts in men.

The morning shot shows a rubber tapping knife in action and the next one latex bleeding down. The act of a butcher killing an animal is shown. After that, the middle-class man's attitude towards meat is demonstrated through a series of shots. Meat has become an unavoidable item in the food for modern men. A shot before the church shows a tree where many polythene bags full of raw meat bought from the butcher are hanging down. The church itself is secondary to men's appetite for blood and meat. They go to church after buying meat as their priorities in life have changed. There even the priest takes the share of the butcher. Even those who despise the sight of raw meat love its taste when cooked with coconut milk. Even the priests cannot spend a day without meat. In another instance, a shopkeeper speaks of days when meat used to be unaffordable to most people. But now things have changed, and butchers are making a fortune now.

The craving for beef is evident through the words of Kuriachan, a rubber planter planning the cuisine for his daughter's engagement. At the news of Kalan Varki's buffalo running away, he is distraught. His friend asks bluntly at Kuriachan's face: - "What are you saying? … Without beef, can we call it a feast?" It is this over-interest in the quality of food that leads Kuriachan to go in search of chicken in the middle of the night and get caught by some villagers mistaking him to be having an illicit relation with the women who sell chicken. Thus, Kuriachan reaches back his house wearing a cock-shaped turban while his daughter returns to her home after failing to elope. Kuriachan's failure to understand his daughter's mind in his struggle to make her engagement feast a delicacy is humorous and poignant to watch.

Sophie's attitude to Antony seems of utter contempt until the moment she understands that it is he who trapped the animal. The female instinct to adore the successful hunter works here also. She succumbs to him and speaks to him in loving terms, even at his physical assault on her after his success over the animal. His advances for her love until then seem to be of no good as his catches till then were only "small fish." The words of Kalan Varki to Antony shows his contempt - "This is not as easy as your silly fishing." So, the hunt for the buffalo was the trial of his merits for Antony. He longed for a final victory over his antagonist Kuttachan who is a recognized sharpshooter. Luck favors him to convince others of his heroism.

Paul's attitude changes when he finds his plants destroyed, and he uses abusive words in public. Paul goes to Sub Inspector and other officials to register his complaints, and none comes forward to help him. This is the situation a law-abiding person faces in a society that still retains its primitive instincts despite its apparent sophistication.

The hypocrisy of the people being violent at Kalan Varki and his accomplice Antony for the damages caused by the escaped animal is worth noticing. The mob who questions him include the priest of the church and a customer who used to beg for more meat from Varki. They suddenly wash off their share of guilt in the incident, and to them, the butcher alone is the culprit. In a thankless society, even a silly mistake one makes can rob away thousands of good things done by him.

The sharpening poles to hunt the buffalo is nothing but a reappearance of the preparation for the hunt by our forefathers in their search for food. The whole society gets into the fervor of blood and the glory of hunting in a day and night's time. The typical habitual ways of the community abruptly change into something very violent and aggressive than the poor beast hunted. The police jeep being burned is the moment of drastic change in people's attitude. One of the characters speaks at the fireside in the night: - "They may move around on two legs, but they are beasts." It is the beast in them that comes out at the end.

The reception Kuttachan gets in the village is reminiscent of the welcome a hunting hero receives from a primitive tribe. In every man lives the primitive who longs to fulfill his desire for hunting, killing blood, and victory over one another. The gun in Kuttachan's hand is the symbol of his power and authority over others. It is because of his mastery of the gun that Kuttachan is adored. It is the loss of that gun that leads to his misfortune in the hunt. The hunt for the buffalo is to Kuttachan nothing but a quest for his enemy. He gives more importance to fighting Antony than the buffalo. But it is notable that even after being stabbed by Antony, he never exposes him. Kuttachan might not be able to admit that it is Antony who stabbed him. He tells everyone that it is the buffalo that attacked him.

Antony is longing for recognition, which he is denied everywhere, at his place of work, as well as at his pursuit of love. So, he decides to prove himself at the escape of the buffalo. He plans to catch it and win the favor of his lady love. But Kuttachan reaches the village as an opponent, and Antony becomes furious at Kuttachan as he sees him as a big block in his way to success. Antony could not allow Kuttachan to kill the beast fallen in the well, as it will destroy his claim over the animal and its kill. At the well, Antony had to fight for his chance to get into the well to retrieve the buffalo. It is his recognition as the hero who trapped the buffalo in the well that has helped him to win. But the animal escaped again at his efforts to rescue it out of the well. He fears Kuttachan and his gun and carries a dagger, which he uses in the end to stab Kuttachan. Thus, the whole film is a quest for an identity for Antony.

The conversation between Varki and Kuttachan at the rescue scene seems to refer to Kuttachan' s planned revenge. While the buffalo is being rescued from the well, Varki speaks to Kuttachan- "If you get a chance, put a bullet into his chest itself. "It seems that Varki is sure that the animal will escape from the hands of Antony. Varki does not help Antony in rescuing the buffalo out of the well. It may be because he disagrees with Antony on killing it with the gun, but it seems that he is supporting Kuttachan and his plan for revenge.

The buffalo is called "Poththu" in Malayalam, which is also used to denote a person who is very strong physically but has not achieved mental maturity. So, the term applies to the people in the film than the buffalo. Antony is also immature and impulsive in his actions, but he is also the evilest character representing the beast among the notable individual characters of the film. He had no remorse in betraying his friend by exposing him to the police to win Sophie's hand. Antony is the most cunning, and the whole beast escape incident itself seems to be his plan to prove himself. He is a great manipulator who could turn adverse events in his favor.

The mob despite all the proclaimed civilized nature of human beings, take spears and hunt like wild animals. The film shows that the culture and sophistication we boast about are nothing but a thin curtain hiding our bestiality. The beast within can come out at any time and destroy everything created by human civilization. The buffalo destroys many social institutions on its mad run into the forest. At one point, the flag post of a political party is pulled down. But the comrades who gather there to discuss the issue are interrupted by some violent men. Thus, no fruitful discussion is possible in a society in which violence predominates. Communism itself is shown as having no device for a solution to the problem. No politics or any other institution can oppose the brute force that drives the violence of a mob thirsty for human blood.

Another notable moment in the film is the attack on a north Indian man who sells food in a cart. He escapes at the timely intervention of some rational men as the public has not got the hunt's frenzy at that time. But his cart is destroyed by the buffalo. It should be viewed in connection with the recent public attacks on people from other states based on mere suspicion. The innocent animal, though at first represents the beast, is so only until the real beast comes out and hunts it down, destroying the whole society, social institutions, and norms producing severe chaos. The real animal in men has taken over humanity, and it is craving for more blood.

An older man is shown right from the beginning of the movie, waiting for his death. At his deathbed, he watches a buffalo outside his window. This scene renders the buffalo symbolism in the film more complex. Buffalo is the vehicle of the god or the messenger of death -Yama as per Hindu scriptures. But a Christian man dying seeing the vehicle of Yama at his death bed is ironic as well as meaningful. It shows the universality of death despite our beliefs or affiliations.

The most delicious meat in the world is human meat. It is a dialogue from the movie, which resonates till the end of the action. Once the beast in men has learned the taste of human flesh, it is unstoppable. The shots following the second escape of the animal are worth watching. A series of silent shots shows the neglected yard with a human corpse and remnants of the battle covered in mud. It reminds us of the aftermaths of all wars and conflicts. The beast in the mob's psyche has learnt the taste of human blood at the end of the movie. Then the mob strip away their final skin of sophistication. They have revealed themselves, the real beasts without any conscience. Those men run into themselves and start killing each other, and even those who realize their mistake cannot escape the situation. The fate of human society is sealed. This hunt thus becomes a hunt of all hunts.

Work Cited

Bassil-Morozow, Helena Victor, and Luke Hockley. Jungian Film Studies: the Essential Guide. New York, NY, 2017.

Pellissery, Lijo Jose, director. Jallikkattu. Opus Penta, 2019.