Punyalan Agarbattis

Joy Thakkolkaran of Thrissur wants to be a businessman, and sets to work on an odd idea: making incense sticks out of elephant dung. The product turns out genuinely well, and it keeps mosquitoes away as a bonus. But having a good idea is not enough; permits, politicians, a strike, rivals and a court case all arrive, and the factory stops. Directed by Ranjith Sankar, the film starts out as a comedy and turns into satire about everything standing between a person and a small business in Kerala. Jayasurya plays Joy and his performance carries the picture. The telling never presents its hero as a crushed victim; the man simply tries again each time. It is one of the well-liked examples of the low-budget, topical strain in Malayalam cinema of those years.