Had anyone ever thought of making a film on a funeral ceremony which was in turmoil? Literally no one would have unless it was LJP no words take a bow _/\_
I can see nothing other than his making as it was absolutely realistic and sublime. Performances, cinematography and bgm added more quality to the story. Highly recommended for movie buffs.
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Aravinthar72 October 2018Ayyapan at the police station Ayyapan: Everyone of us will leave someday.Then,we should all get together to give them a sendoff.Isn't that it is?
Otherwise,why we call ourselves human beings?
What is the point in living like this? This scene and Vinayakan acting his superb.
Lijo Jose pellissery - The man keeps surprising us with his movies...The way he handles the script is A class.. I just love that (kind of) poetic climax -
sudarshanviji7 February 2019Set in the coastal village of Kerala, this film wonderfully portrays the events that unfold after the death of an aging patriarch with the right mix of emotions and black humor. Coming to the technical brilliance, the film is mostly shot either at night or under a dull skyscape with sea drenched in the rain which represents the grief that surrounds the family of Vavachan Mestri(who dies in the course of the film) after his death. There are many unbroken shots like in the director's previous film Anagamally Diaries where the actors single-handedly dominate the scenes. Also, the course of death is beautifully shown when the old man(Vavachan Mestri)carries a bag that contains a duck where its fate is already known and so is him. Before his death, he and his son(Eeshi) have a casual conversation and Eeshi promises him that he will conduct his father's funeral like a king. But what makes the film gripping are the events that happen after Vavachan's death and the funeral doesn't go according to the plan. Other supporting characters, let it be Vavachan's wife, daughter or daughter in law have played their roles up to perfection. There is one scene where Vavachan's wife cries just because she has to thereby reciting to those who visit the dead Vavachan and this happens like a cycle and at one point she is awakened by the parish clerk's rose-water and she again resumes her lamenting and this is where the director brings in the content of black humor. Like this, there are so many scenes where grief and humor are rightly balanced. Also, the character(Ayappan-friend of Eeshi) played by Vinayakan depicts how true and helping a friend should be in times of misery. Both Eeshi and Ayappan just don't play off their characters but are stubborn with their own thoughts and decisions. Fate decides everything in this film right from the unruly happenings at the funeral thereby not providing a moment of peace to Eeshi to mourn his father's death to the final 20 minutes of the film where Eeshi is driven mad as a result of the failure in the promise he made to his father. Finally, the old man is denied of an extravagant funeral and meets the fate like the above-mentioned duck and the one buried by the priest. So what stands apart in this film is the unconventional storytelling method adopted by the director to portray the sad truth of life along with a blend of humor. Ee.Ma.Yau- A Cinematic Brilliance of Indian Film Industry.
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sidharthsoman-144726 May 2018Don't you have one of those bad afternoon naps? Wherein you're disturbed by a bad dream? Not necessarily a nightmare, but one disturbing thought that creeps into your head, when you're not sure if you're awake or asleep? Ee.Ma.Yau is one such experience.
This won't make you laugh. This won't leave you with a single happy thought. This won't lift your spirits if you feel down. Yet, this movie connects with you. This movie slowly makes its way into your head. This movie makes you not want to blink. This one neither makes you laugh, nor does it make you cry. Lijo Jose Pellisseri makes you numb. He casts his spell, and takes you away from all things materialistic in this world.
Everything about this film, is perfect. Not all films need a story. A powerful script, extraordinary actors and one great director can prouduce magic. And the end product, Ee.Ma.Yau speaks for itself.
Surreal experience. Take a bow, everyone . Probably my greatest theatre experience till date. Now is when it's all happening in Mollywood. -
geomariageorge30 September 2018The film took me on a whirl. It gives a constant shoot of adrenaline in the most predictable scenes by revealing the agendas and cursory nods we have learnt to live in the society. Every whirl was a opening a nasty part of funerals. Wonderful. It compares to movies like Carnage, Synechdoche, Thondimuthalum Drusakshiyum, Panchavadi Paalam and all to me. Most parts of the movie is cast with a heavy rain that adds magic to the senseless hullaballoo. Beautifully orchestrated. I fell in love with the director.
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sujith789_reviews17 November 2019
- Excellent making.
- Whole story revolves around a death.
- Dark humour at its best.
- Chemban Vinod, Vinayakan and Pauly Wilson were outstanding.
- Final Score - 9.2/10. MUST WATCH.
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surajpnair3 June 2018Watched Malayalam film Ee.Ma.Yau There are very few films which still runs on your mind on an exploration to find a new meaning which enlightens us in a way or the other and Ee.Ma.Yau is just one beautiful film. Technically one of the brilliant films produced in this country and was spellbound to realize the way sound was treated. This is a director's film - especially the last 15 minutes where we see the masterstroke from the filmmaker, it just elevated the film to the next level to cult status with the soundtrack being introduced at that juncture. Though the conflict is very thin, the way it has been thought of and dealt with - I cannot think of any other better way to conceive such a topic in an interesting way and deep-rooted at the same time. A film not to be missed, Highly Recommended.
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gkr-7652912 May 2018In Ee. Ma. Yau lijo has once again built a place and a set of great characters, who feel grounded to the setting they are placed .With an ensemble cast , lijo has made a film which is rich in atmospherics and dark humor. Strong performances across the board and Shyju Khalid's beautiful night frames has elevated this films to be one of the best films to come out of the Malayalam film industry recently.
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Jithindurden14 October 2018Until the last half an hour everything was happening as I expected from the synopsis. Even after that there wasn't anything that was surprising. But the small details that was given throughout that time elevates the last events into a whole different level. The script, performances, cinematography, music, direction, everything is top notch. The ending was when I was again reminded that this is a Pellissery film, so it have to be filled with symbolisms, a lot of which I am yet to completely understand.
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omipatel10 June 2020This is a dark comedy drama which doesn't feels like dark comedy for the one who watches with subtitles. This film will direct impact you know the local language i.e Malayalam. This reveals some obvious and some surprising part of our human thinking. Give it a watch.
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sudhakaranakhilan22 May 2018Ee.Ma.Yau Lijo Jose Pellissery
What was the reason behind me to hunch back there in the seat while the end credit goes on the screen? Yes, I have that answer with me. It was the haunting, growling (not actually growling) and the echoing score of Prasanth Pillai frozen me at the end. It was not only the situation of mine but also to my friend who was next to me and I assume it is true to everyone who witnesses this great one from Lijo Jose Pellissery. Hence, Lijo once again amazed me with Ee.Ma.Yau. There was darkness everywhere. The darkness that sprout somewhere on the screen, fore-ground or background and even at the center also and I'm thinking why Lijo choose that kind of input to it. It is cleared to me that, the subject demands it. Ee.Ma.Yau, in one word is a distinct work of Lijo from his early ones. It deals with a simple topic which crafted and polished into a complex way that many of the filmmakers stand far away. This might be the reason for me to watch each and every film of Lijo so keenly and in detail. He proved again his sincerity and perseverance as a filmmaker. I'm not going to detail anything about the movie here, but I just want to point about the movie in accordance with the things that fascinates me. First of all it was the subject itself. Death is an important thing for films and many of other creative products. Somehow, it is a significant subject while we are talking about anything that matters in our life. Death has more and more attraction to many creators, that's why they love it. Ee.Ma.Yau also talks about Death. Actually it was surrounded by death. I have seen many critics points Ee.Ma.Yau shows some kind of resemblance to the movie Shavam which was hit on-screen many years ago but truly I don't know anything about it because I have not seen the movie Shavam. What I'm going to state here that while I went through each frame of Ee.Ma.Yau I got the feeling that I'm going through another movie similarly like this one, which is Shayanam. I'm not pointing that these two films have similarities, but something; I don't know, struck me every-time even though I'm writing this; which is about the film Shayanam. This might be my mistake because I went through Shayanam when I was around 15 or 16 years of age but the scenes from the movie haunts me now, actually. Shayanam was also about death. A person (the character was done by Babu Antony) who is insane for everyone, for the people who knows him, for the villagers and especially for the church. When he dies, the church authority decides him to cover him at the place near to the cemetery where the insane people gets covered. He was not allowed the public cemetery. When the film ends, that insane man derived as a Saint and people from other places crowded there to watch his dead body. What I'm written here was a vague picture that I recollect from my past but it is sure that Shayanam was about Death. Second thing which I was keen to talk about this film is its Lighting. I'm just distracted and conjured about the technique that Lijo (and especially Shyju Khalid, the Cinematographer) followed here for lighting. The thing is that first half of the film is happening during the night and Lijo doesn't use any artificial light through-out. It is a matter of wonder for me actually because it was sheer the courage of director to refuse all kind of artificiality in the film so that lighting favors and cements his idea of natural. The blinking tube-light symbolize it and especially the street lights also. The light from the incandescent bulb atop at the two men who is playing cards also resembles how we can use minimum light and get maximum result. Anyway 'Lightless' is the Lighting technique that followed by Lijo for the film. It is very hard to me to lie down each and every thing that haunts me in the film in numbers but lot of factors mixed in my mind while I'm talking about this. The Score, the acting, the setting all are matters to me when I'm talking. But I don't know how to point all these things and how to attribute it. Lijo, who is always debt from World films, has the caliber to deliver international stuffs like this. He showed and proved his ability through Amen, Angamaly Diaries etc. He is not a regional director as well. He is international as the caption says, 'Local is International'. -
sriramthestranger4 July 2020The plot is about a son trying to arrange a grand funeral, the last wish of his late father. This is not a kind of movie where there is a "whats next?" element. Rather, it is about how different people in different situations interpret the death of the protagonist's father and revolves around the theme of humanity. A good movie to watch if you have patience.
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pridekerala5 May 2018The movie is a clear cut art house/ off beat/ award movie..those who like such serious, ultra realistic movies with real life scenes and can sit through the dragging of such genre will find this movie fine, but for all others it will be a real test of patience..a funereal all along with no other happenings or surprises.. if you are a fan of such dark realistic art movies go for this.... otherwise it may be definite risk for your valuable money and time..
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magnamias19 November 2019How often do we think about death? Our brushes with mortality are often when misfortune strikes loved ones or through books and movies. But while there have been great movies centred around grief and dying, one aspect that is sidelined to very simplistic projections is the funeral. Usually, in South Indian movies, you see a gathering where women are wailing and men standing sober faced around a body covered with a white sheet. This scene is often just a few minutes of the movie itself.
Ee. Ma. Yau is different. The entire movie is about the funeral - the messy affair of saying a final goodbye. A poor fisherman's son wants to bid goodbye to his late father with some dignity. But when death strikes suddenly, time is against you and you are poor, this is no easy ask, especially in a society where the distinction between private and public blurs - where rituals, religion, neighbours, corruption, bureaucracy, everything converge to hassle you before you can take even five minutes off to grieve. This is not your usual film that follows an arc - the one where problem strikes, hero suffers, he fights and then overcomes it all. This is more like a documentary on the sociology of death that pays attention to the details - how women grieve differently in front of different people, how a village with little to look forward to creates its own entertainment around death and the dynamics of power that is asserted by religion in times of crisis.
The movie in itself is a little boring - there, I said it. Because, as I mentioned, there is little plot; the genius is in the realism and attention to subtle, societal details. You need patience to sit through the first half, at least. But it does push one to think of the complexities around mortality. Towards the end, all at once, strong emotion hit me. And I did dream a thing or two about death for a few days.
Cheers to the most elaborate funeral in Indian Cinema! -
odanavattombenson23 December 2018Wonderful movie,portraits the Essense of life,struggles and emotions,worth to watch if you like right to heart type movies
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CIDMoosa11 February 2019Ee. Ma Yau. is Malayalam cinema at its best in recent times. Adapted from P.F.Mathews' 'Chavu Nilam', this out and out dark satire surrounding a death in a coastal village and the associated pandemonium it creates is an amazingly shot motion picture of true class! Making the film a technical benchmark on realistic making with some excellent natural light camerawork from Shyju Khalid, Lijo Jose Pellisery has done full justice to his role as director and quite so deserves the state awards bestowed to him for the same this year. Starting off as a light hearted satire based on a coastal Latin catholic family of Vavachan and his son Eesi, Ee. Ma. Yau gets much darker and haunting along the way, the entire proceedings reeking of the grim reaper's arrival. Barring the last 20 min, the howling wind, splashing waves and incessant downpour have been captured beautifully as the background amidst all the hullaballoo unleashed between vavachan's first and second wife, their families, the rude vicar and some crazy villagers. Dead bodies, cremation, cemetery, coffin and the last rites from the church take up majority of the proceedings, making this a unique and literally 'deadly' experience. Last 20 min of the movie belongs to Chemban Vinod Jose and Prasanth Pillai, the former for his amazing and effortless transition in to semi lunatic, self mumbling Eesi - the dutiful son of Vavachan who loses it towards the end - and the latter for his downright haunting BGM, something that echoes in to your mind even as the end credits roll by. Another performance worth lauding is from Pouly Valsan who played Eesi's mother, a seasoned and hilarious performance on so many levels. Ee. Ma. Yau is another surreal experience which I've missed watching in the big screen again - this one will go down as a true classic in Malayalam after quite some time!
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jacobthomasnid22 May 2019A good theme and storyline. Excellent cast and outstanding performance. Nice classic movie.
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nairtejas6 October 2018Exactly at the 100th minute, Chemban Vinod Jose's troubled and dismayed (because he couldn't pull of what he promised few hours ago) character goes berserk at the prospect of not being able to send his late father off like a legend by giving him a respectful funeral with pomp and loudness and that's when you know that Lijo Jose Pellissery's Ee. Ma. Yau has arrived with its platter full of real-life connotations about how death is perceived by the onlookers who don't but realize that their wildest emotions can still wreak havoc affecting not only the dead but also those who they leave behind. TN.
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Stay away if you feel to be entertained. we have the freedom to choose what type of films we need to see. its just feels people come with different expectations. This film can give you the experience which we don't usually get. I always feel the story in world is always same. its only the characters in that story writing them self a different screenplay. If you think its a story of dead and cremation , I don't argue with you. But the social setting and characters in the film are real enough to give you a real experience who write a unique screenplay themselves with their own problems and created problems to each other.
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AdhilAramam15 April 2020A once in a lifetime experience. Must watch film. Words are not enough to describe the feelings.
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mailrashmi-366936 July 2020The idea of watching a movie based on funeral itself is depressing but I had to watch it for LJP as I am a fan of his other movies. EMY really didn't live up to its hype. The one funeral scene in Angamaly Diaries was a lot funnier! I wonder if this movie would have been such a success had it not carried LJP name. Sorry, if I offend EMY fans but I found it really boring!!
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AnonymousbutDilpreet00212 August 2020What's funny about this? What can be funny about death?
It's a kind of film that can make you sad. Infact, I was frustrated at what was happening to the main character, Easy(or whatever the spelling is).
I don't have much to talk about it. But whatever I have heard of Lijo Jose Pellisserry turned out to be true. At the scene of Vavachan's death, I see a single take shot where everyone was running. It's evident that he likes long shots.
I wonder why nobody in the reviews is talking about cinematography. It's really wonderful. In a scene where Chavaro was walking away from seashore, the colours took my heart away. Also, the way ocean waves were captured in this film, has been never done before. Whole film is just beautifully shot.
It's a throughly entertaining, well acted film. Strong in technical departments as well. -
roadkill-2722321 October 2018The film is an experience. There are many levels in which the film excels. The thought on this film is simple, a very thin plot nothing miraculous or nothing mindbending, but this film excels by taking such a short "can happen story' and making it haunting, the 2 hrs that we spend becomes a long funeral.
like the name says this film is all about the funeral.
The cast is amazing, Vinaykan like always sets himself apart, Chemban Vinod Jose really blend into the situation and we can feel the tension on yhis face even he is turning back, the film ends in a predictable way but this film is nothing about the ending its all about the situation the tension the slow poison effect. this may not be the cup of tea for everyone but it is magical. -
SAMTHEBESTEST11 June 2021Ee. Ma. Yau / Eesho Mariyam Yauseppu / RIP (2018) : Brief Review -
The greatest exemplar of how to turn a simple realistic story into a stunning Masterpiece! Hats off to Lijo Jose Pellissery for the out of the boundary thinking. Malayalam Cinema has produced many stunning classics that i will remember forever and RIP raises the even higher. I don't think any cinematic brain can think outside of dramatic notions and mainstream proportions like Lijo Jose Pellissery has done with this film. I mean just a simple story an old man's funeral, how possibly anyone can gamble with it and yet deliver something sensational and out of the world? I don't know how Pellissery did it, from where did he got the idea and how he convinced every single thing through his superior execution but i want stand in front of him and give him a grand salute for this wonderful and unbelievable cinematic experience. So, like i said the film revolves around the death and funeral of an older man from the Roman Catholic community in Chellanam. It showcases the events that unfold between two evenings and looks at death from different perspectives and how those beloved ones can go wild and hysteric all over it barring of what that sensitive situation demands. All the actors are at their best natural flow which provides the utter realistic touch to the film. Costumes, sets, art decorations, background score, cinematography, dialogues, screenplay all these aspects are immensely supportive to make the film look that much real. It depicts the exact same events as it happens in our real life after someone's death in the family and the one who has ever witnessed such situations in life will easily notice the quality framework and nuances. I wanted to go with 8.5/10 but i am going with 9/10 only because i believe nobody would ever be able to adopt a regular life event into marvelous and genius art piece of filmmaking like this.
RATING - 9/10*
By - #samthebestest. -
jithinr-831548 January 2021A powerful realistic film, that drags you down to experience the emotional state of a poor son's attempt to fulfill his father's last wishes. Throughout his attempt, he realizes various faces of the society when someone is in a helpless situation. The film leaves you in an unsettling position, which makes us realize that angels and demons are in Earth itself and not in heaven or hell! It is also important to note that the director have given equal importance to the souls of animals in the film! My rating: 10/10 🙌