Ayyappanum Koshiyum

AK – Ayyappanum Koshiyum, is about a chance encounter between a police officer (Ayyappan) and an influential, rich, ex-serviceman brat (Koshy) and the aftermath where they go head to head, hell bent on destroying each other. And the movie is anything but what you expect from the summary above, especially if you are accustomed to Telugu and Tamil movies.

The characters are human, richly portrayed, people and the settings are natural, if somewhat rural. The story is gripping and visuals are used effectively to convey a lot of nuance. Especially the scene where A and K are in the police station for the first time and K threatens to just walk away and disappear. Dialogues are sparse and meaningful.

One of our favorite scenes is the one where A and his wife Kannamma are sitting under the tree next to their house. The last dialogue was A saying to her, “you have never done what I have asked you to do and neither have I”. Look for it and the subtext it conveys when you watch the movie. Kannamma and her feistiness, is like that extra bit of detail an artist adds on to enhance the beauty of the art work, and for no other reason.

I know that I don’t know how to write a movie review, I don’t watch too many, nor do I read or write reviews frequently. Suffice it to say that I enjoyed the 3 hours (yes, it was that long) and I recommend it highly.

It’s in Malayalam with English subtitles, on Prime video. Again, you don’t feel like you are watching a foreign language movie, even if you don’t know Malayalam. For those who are not familiar, Malayalam is a mellow sounding language with lots of Sanskrit like words that you can catch easily if you pay a little bit of attention.

Have fun!