Anantaram

Adoor Gopalakrishnan's 1987 Malayalam film consists of a young man telling his own life in two different ways. Ajayan gives one version, then tells the same events again with the details changed, and the two accounts do not agree. The idea is that the narrator cannot be trusted. Which part is real and which invented is never stated; the second account does not void the first but is placed beside it. The structure counts among the earliest and most consistent uses of the unreliable narrator in Indian cinema. Adoor builds the form from the subject; the camera is static, the editing measured and the voiceover continuous. Ashokan leads, with Mammootty and Shobana in support. The film won prizes at international festivals. Who it's for: those who like Indian art cinema and formal experiment. Who it's not for: viewers expecting explanation; the film never says which account is true.