9aam Classile 7aam Paadam short film review
★★★
Directed by: Dhanush S Nair
Written by: Dhanush S Nair, Anand Manoj
Film Review by: Jason Knight
A man develops a very sinister perspective towards sex and women.
The film begins by showing the protagonist as a school student. The class is about to have a biology lesson and he is disappointed when the teacher decides to skip the reproduction subject. He talks to one of his friends about this and they provide him with a pornographic film, so he can learn about sex. Ten years later, he is now a loner, smokes a lot and is addicted to pornography. He observes women inappropriately and he ends up committing an unspeakable act.
This Malayalam dark, disturbing thriller explores the life of a sexual predator and the factors that might turn an individual into one. Instead of receiving proper sex education, the main character learns about intercourse through pornography, which has negative consequences as it makes him view women only in a sexual manner. The main message appears to be the importance of sex education, with the idea that it could help prevent that.
The protagonist delivers a convincing performance as a lonely, disturbed individual, whose principal pleasures seem to be cigarettes and sex. Aside from being creepy, he also turns out to be dangerous. The supporting cast also do a good job.
The film contains sequences that utilize fast cutting interestingly, although at certain points, the editing appears clumsy. There is slow motion and the music is atmospheric and at times becomes very tense and terrifying, contributing to the scenes. Also, the viewer will often hear the sounds of birds and crickets chirping.
It should be mentioned that there are disturbing scenes of a sexual nature, that are uncomfortable to watch and also nasty violence.
This short does not make for a pleasant viewing, due to its subject matter and the scenes mentioned above. It is thought-provoking to watch a person become evil, however it is not clearly explained whether sex films made him what he is or whether there was something wrong with him to begin with.
#JasonKnight
