Kappela

Muhammad Musthafa's first film begins when a young woman from a hill village in Kerala travels to the city to meet the auto-rickshaw driver she has been talking to on the phone. Anna Ben plays the woman, Roshan Mathew the driver and Sreenath Bhasi the stranger who derails the meeting. The structure is built on the viewer's prejudice. In the first half every cue about who is dangerous and who is trustworthy is laid out; in the second half the film reveals how that reading was constructed. Since this is the whole mechanism, saying more about it would spoil it. The acting is its firmest element. Anna Ben plays the woman from the village as neither naive nor too worldly; she stands between the two. The cinematography establishes the break between village and city through light. Who it's for: viewers who like Malayalam cinema that draws its surprise from the audience's assumptions. Who it's not for: viewers who want a plot that holds together from the start; the film withholds information for effect, and some will find that unfair.