Pothettan’s Shakespearean Brilliance

Pothettan’s Shakespearean Brilliance

Joji, the latest movie by Dileesh Pothan and team, has won hearts much like their previous projects. The movie, starring Fahadh Faasil, Unnimaya Prasad, Baburaj, Shammi Thilakan and others is inspired by one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays Macbeth.

Macbeth is a brave general in the army of Duncan, the King of Scotland. A prophecy by three witches that one day he would become the king of Scotland leads to the birth of greed and ambition in Macbeth. When his wife, Lady Macbeth, learns about the prophecy, she further adds fuel to his ambition. They plot to murder the king when he visits their place. They succeed in their act, but not without leaving suspicions in the air. Macbeth is crowned the king, yet his ambitions do not die. The witches had also prophesied that the sons of Banquo, another of King Duncan’s generals, would be future kings of Scotland. In order to prevent this from happening in the future, Macbeth orders the assassination of Banquo and his son. While Banquo is killed, his son escapes. Lady Macbeth, initially a partner-in-crime, soon falls prey to guilt and eventually commits suicide. The thirst for ultimate power sets Macbeth on a killing spree. However, he too soon loses hold over his mental balance. His ambition and blindness in power lead to his downfall.

(Photo Source: Pixabay) 

If Joji, played by Fahadh, is the Macbeth in Joji, then his sister-in-law Bincy, played by Unnimaya, is the Lady Macbeth. In a family where they have no voice of their own, both look forward to freedom and power. It is his relative Dr. Felix a.k.a. chettayi (Shammi Thilakan) addressing him as a ‘millionaire’ that turns out to be the ‘prophecy’ for Joji or rather the event that triggers his ambition. Much like Lady Macbeth, Bincy is the partner-in-crime for Joji, though her involvement is not as deep as that of her Shakespearean counterpart. Joji too, like Macbeth, goes on to remove all obstacles in his pathway that pose a threat to his ambition – which leads him to kill his elder brother Jomon. Bincy is no longer a party to the crimes of her brother-in-law. She watches in disbelief as she sees him become a cold-blooded criminal. In fact, the scene where she asks him to put on a mask before coming out in public for his father’s funeral reveals the onset of fear and guilt in Bincy and coldness in Joji. In the end, Joji too faces the same fate as Macbeth. Coincidentally, much like how Banquo’s son has a key role in the gathering of forces against Macbeth, Jomon’s son Popy is the one who hammers the final nail in Joji’s coffin. ‘Ambition’ and ‘self-confidence’ had taken them so far that both Macbeth and Joji fight till their last breath – as we see the latter denying his crimes even in the last scene of the movie.

(Photo Source: Amazon Prime Video) 

While we could see the essence of Shakespeare’s Macbeth in Joji, Dileesh Pothen and Syam Pushkaran (scriptwriter) have also added their own flavours to the characters. For instance, Bincy is dealt with in a subtler way when compared to Lady Macbeth. Likewise, ‘guilt’ does not catch up with Joji as much as it does with Macbeth. Nevertheless, the movie captures the destructive influence of greed on humans much like in Macbeth. The background score is of a different level altogether and gives a ‘Shakespearean’ feel to the movie. Needless to say, ‘Pothettan’ has once again exhibited his ‘brilliance’ by beautifully crafting a Shakespearean magic in a Kerala setting.

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