‘Joji’ movie review: Dileesh Pothen scores a hat-trick with this perceptive study of criminality

Scriptwriter Syam Pushkaran and Pothen bring together elements from Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’and K.G.George’s emergency-era classic ‘Irakal’to construct a wholly original world, that is both engaging and darkly funny

The face mask, a necessity in the post-pandemic world, might be a hindrance for many, but in the cold and sinister world painted by Dileesh Pothen in Joji, it is a perfect tool to hide your criminal intentions and guilt. “Wear a mask and come down,” asks a sort of co-conspirator to the man who has just committed his first crime, and is struggling to contain his glee. . In his third outing Joji, Dileesh Pothen trains his lens on an affluent family living amid vast pineapple farms in Erumely. Kuttappan (P.N. Sunny), the patriarch of the Panachel family, has such a tight, authoritarian control over his family, that his youngest son Joji (Fahadh Faasil) seeks his permission before touching the car keys, to take his father (who is down with a stroke) to the hospital. Joji, on the other hand is the meek one, like the white horse he rears. But then, appearances can be deceptive.