The Old Man and The Gun

The Chekov’s Gun principle states that if there’s a gun, it must be eventually fired. In other words, every element in a narrative has its significance, else it wouldn’t have been there in the first place.

Kishkindha Kaandam (KK) both literally and figuratively takes the Chekov’s Gun principle seriously when a Smith & Wesson pistol goes missing in the very first scene; a gun belonging to an old man Appu Pillai (a brilliant Vijayaraghavan), obsessed with finding it. This demented, obsessively compulsive, grumpy old man has more to him than meets the eye. Is it only the gun gone missing or is there more?

A mysterious aura surrounds the narrative of KK, where both, the old man and the audience are left to connect the dots to arrive at the answer. In that sense, KK is neither a whodunnit nor a thriller, it is a methodical peek into the demented mind of a man who uses his ingenuity to hold his marbles together to avoid the pack of cards from falling.

KK has immediate parallels to Hollywood classics such as Memento, Shutter Island and other movies of its genre. Even the background score is reminiscent of Hans Zimmer’s compositions for Nolan’s movies. Yet, KK stands on its own with its unique storytelling rooted in the forests of God’s Own Country.

Asif Ali as the troubled father Ajay and Aparna Balamurali as his second wife add the required gravitas to the storytelling–the former, torn between society and respect for his father while the latter, as the doubting Thomas of the family, hell bent on discovering the truth at all costs.

potential spoilers ahead

However, it is director Dinjith Ayyathan who is playing mind games with the audience with his slow burn, layered storytelling where nothing is what it seems. And similar to the Kishkindha Kaandam in the epic Ramayana, where Lord Rama is searching for Sita, here too we have Appu Pillai and Ajay searching for something they hold dear to their hearts. And if in the epic Ramayana, Sugreeva has his brother’s blood on his hands, KK too has a character or two troubled by guilt for similar reasons. Looking at things from this perspective, KK is definitely not an easy watch, especially as you approach the climax. But then such is life, the end is often painful.