Julia Mathew
Dr. Joseph Koyippally
LEC052025
June 15, 2021
Joji: Reawakening Macbeth with a Poignant Social Critique in 21st Century Kerala
William Shakespeare’s Macbeth has seen two major adaptations in cinema so far – Vishal Bhardwaj’s Maqbool, and Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood (Rangan, Baradwaj, "Joji Movie Review"). Joji (directed by Dileesh Pothan), a 2021 Malayalam film based on Macbeth, is barely an adaptation, as the makers of the film themselves claim: “the film's narrative is not a direct adaptation of Macbeth. We were deeply inspired by it…” (The Indian Express). Therefore, it would be futile to criticise Joji for not adhering to Macbeth’s plotline as closely as its predecessors did. Joji is brilliant in its own right, especially for its life-like subtlety as opposed to the drama of the royal setting of Macbeth. Drawing out the similarities and differences between Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Shyam Pushkaran-Dileesh Pothan-Fahadh Faasil’s Joji, I would like to offer a comparative analysis of the two to prove that Joji is an exceptional (loose) adaptation of Macbeth, perfect for its contemporary audience.
Joji’s setting is a wealthy landowner’s household situated in a vast, lush rubber plantation in 21st century Kerala, whereas Macbeth’s setting is a royal, martial 16th century Scotland. Joji does not offer one on parallels for each and every character in Macbeth, but Joji’s characters are arguably more complex and well-rounded than Shakespeare’s characters (who tend to be personifications of human qualities – greed (Macbeth, Lady Macbeth) , loyalty (Banquo, Macduff), love (King Duncan), etc. The ‘King Duncan’ of Joji is Panachel Kuttappan, who is introduced in the movie as a giant, muscular man, doing pull ups. He is not seen smiling once, and he is verbally and physically abusive to his sons. He is the terrifying image of the tyrannical patriarch, in stark contrast to King Duncan, who calls to mind the image of a loving father. Banquo in Joji can be appropriated to Jomon’s character, who is the elder brother of Joji. However, Jomon is no equivalent of Banquo: the only similarity between them is their loyalty towards Duncan/Kuttappan, but even this loyalty is questionable in Jomon’s case – One, Jomon is tied to Kuttappan in gratitude as the latter took care of his divorce expenses, whereas Joji and Jaison, Kuttappan’s other two sons have been turned down even when they begged for money. Two, Jomon taking the liquor bottle of the bed-ridden Kuttappan, is not too far from Jaison using Kuttappan’s geyser, or Joji, going on an online shopping spree with his father’s money – the relationship between this father and his sons is founded on money.
Bincy, a possible equivalent of Lady Macbeth, is Jaison’s wife (Joji’s sister-in-law). She is almost like a servant in the household, cooking and cleaning after them, and a passive, silent observer. Lady Macbeth, on the other hand, enjoys the luxury of being a Queen; she is a strong influence on Macbeth. However, Bincy is a strong woman in her own right – her strength is displayed in her loud silence, encouraging nods, and passive applause for Joji’s crime by turning her head away. If one is looking for a grey area to justify any crime, it should be Bincy’s – all she wants is to escape the servitude in her husband’s household.
All of Kuttappan’s sons are frustrated by their ultra-macho father, but none more than Joji. Joji is indeed tough competition as Macbeth’s parallel. While Macbeth is a successful, noble warrior, Joji is a “second rate loser”, as Kuttappan tags him. Joji’s desire for power is somewhat pathetic: his teenager nephew Popy, and Gireesh, his father's worker are his only ‘inferiors’. Even Joji’s weapon is humiliating: an air gun! Joji, slender and weak, unlike his father and brothers, is a clear misfit in the family; he is haunted by his own inadequacies (he is an engineering college dropout) and constantly frustrated by his own failure. This is fueled by his father who abuses him emotionally and physically – suspecting that he has stolen money, Kuttappan asks him to “eat, shit and shut up” (Joji, 11:10-11:13) and crushes his chest, and in another instance, strains his neck to the point of breathlessness. Joji’s motive in his father’s murder is not a one-dimensional love for money, rather an attempt to reclaim his personhood, unlike Macbeth, whose only concern was power and wealth.
On the one hand, you feel more pity for Joji than for Macbeth, because Kuttappan was an authoritarian tyrant, whereas Duncan was a loving friend and father-figure. Macbeth’s murder of Macduff’s household was an unnecessary fit of rage, whereas Joji killed Jomon to save himself. However, Joji is a more fear-evoking anti-hero. Joji’s inch-by-inch murder of his father (by replacing his father’s medicine) is more horrifying than Macebeth’s bloody dagger. The image of the air gun that oozes sap from the rubber tree in one of the first scenes, coupled by the haunting classical music create a sense of impending doom – this is a more powerfully horrifying image than the weird sisters. Joji also ascends into madness like Macbeth (one night, he dreams that he fishes his father’s head), but his madness is more subtle, and life-like, and therefore more horrifying. It is also interesting that Jaison takes Joji’s sudden spirituality for madness – again, this is more powerful than the visions in Macbeth– especially for a modern audience. When he confides in Bincy, her reaction is not a senseless blaming spree like Lady Macbeth, but a chilling truth statement – “the dead will not return, beware the living” (Joji, 1:17:08 – 1:17:12). The guilt of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth which is at the core of Macbeth is absent in Joji: neither Joji nor Bincy shows any sign of guilt, at any point in the movie. The lack of guilt in Joji may take away from the pity we feel about the human condition when we hear Lady Macbeth’s famous line, “All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand” (Macbeth, 5.1.51). However, this lack of guilt also has the power to evoke fear. If Macbeth offers catharsis via pity, Joji offers catharsis via fear.
By the end, Joji calls to mind the image of the pop-cult character, “Joker” – smiling as he plays with his father’s paralysed arm, and even as he types into the Google Search bar ways to kill himself. In the last scene of the movie in which Joji lies paralysed in a hospital bed after his failed suicide attempt, when the police offers ask him to blink in answer to the question whether he admits his crimes, we see a wide-eyed Joji staring at the policemen. This scene creates a sense of irresolution: perhaps it is a metaphor for the never-ending patriarchal tyranny.
If Macbeth may blame Lady Macbeth or the weird sisters for his crimes, Joji blames society. As he mentions in his "non-suicide note, death sentence", it is society that leads him to become this monster – every time Kuttappan insults him, Joji has to hide his growing intolerance and hatred for his father under the mask of familial, religious, and societal decorum: the toxic expectations about masculinity, the measurement of success on the basis of wealth (or in the Malayali context, being an engineering graduate). There is more than little truth in Jomon’s curse for society at 1:20:03.
The subtlety of Joji is its strength, its silence its loudness. There is no question about the greatness of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. But, by its non-adherence to Macbeth’s plotline, Joji does not become a poor adaptation, but a captivating, mind-boggling experience - especially when compared to other movie adaptations of Macbeth. Joji is a perfect modern adaptation for a 21st century audience as it throws light upon the ugly mix of greed and toxic masculinity.
Works Cited
Joji. Directed by Dileesh Pothan. Bhavana Studios, Working Class Hero and Fahadh Faasil and Friends. Amazon Prime Video, 2021. Accessed June 12.Web.
Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Ed. Sandra Clark and Pamela Mason. Arden Shakespeare. New Delhi. 2015. Print.
“Joji is inspired by Macbeth but is not an adaptation: Fahadh Faasil”. The Indian Express. https://indianexpress.com/. April 10, 2021. Accessed June 12, 2021. Web.
Rangan, Baradwaj. "Joji, Malayalam Movie Review". Film Companion South. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj3G8hUR3q. April 7, 2021. Web.
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