01. LEC052023. Appreciation of Joji

 

Joji: A decontextualization of Shakespeare's Macbeth

The best ever produced tragedy in theatre, Shakespeare’s magnum opus Macbeth, has been undergoing the process of translation and adaptations since its original publication in 1606. As Dr. Jonson famously quoted, The Bard of Avon is proving himself to be “not of an age, but for all ages.” Among other theatrical adaptations of Shakespeare, Macbeth occupies a quite special position in Indian films. The movie Joji, a Dileesh Pothan- Fahad Fasil combo, that came on screen in 2021 during the pandemic scenario captured the attention of the audience with its story of greed and ambition. As the movie itself implicates it is an inspiration from Shakespeare’s Macbeth rather than an adaptation of the play. The movie is brilliantly decontextualized from Macbeth’s Scotland to Joji's rich plantation in Kerala by making a local Macbeth in progress.

 The story of the movie Joji is mainly focused on the happenings within the wealthy Panachel house in a high-range village in Kerala. The hero of the story is Joji (Fahadh Faasil), an engineering dropout, who is considered a loser by virtually everyone. Not just him, his elder brothers Jomon and Jaison  are all scared of their rich patriarch father Panachel Kuttappan. While Jomon is a divorcee, Jaison is married to Bincy. It is evident that the family is eyeing the share of the wealth from Kuttappan. The family’s reaction when Kuttappan suffers a stroke reveals their masked faces.

The theme of greed and ambition dealt in Joji makes it closer to Macbeth. In other words, the movie can be considered as a slightly deviated recreation of the latter. The crew of ghe movie themselves have made the point that  “The film’s narrative is not a direct adaptation of Macbeth. We were deeply inspired by it and we were trying to set something inspired by Macbeth in today’s scenario.” Written under the master craft of Shyam Pushkaran Joji’s narrative structure and crux of the story are highly influenced by Shakespeare. In other words, the movie can be put into a fine localised version of Macbeth through an intellectual decontextualization of the plot.

Macbeth’s Dunsinane castle is replaced by the Panachel family in Joji for the creation of a better familiar experience to the Keralites. The movie is set in a manner that it can be highly relatable to the everyday scene of Kerala.In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Macbeth is an impressing character and is described as ‘brave’, ‘noble’, ‘valiant cousin, worthy gentleman’. But here Joji is an entirely different character, ‘a good for nothing’, ‘useless'. Here Joji’s driving force, Bincy is like any Kerala woman who spends most of her time in the kitchen and creates an atmosphere of a common household in Kerala.

To conclude the movie Joji is a fine amalgamation of Macbeth and  Kerala locale in the craftsmanship of Dileesh Pothan and Fahadh Faasil.

Reference:

Joji. Directed by Dileesh Pothan. Performances by Fahadh Faasil. Working Class Hero, 2021.