The 1970s. Any discussion around politics, cinema or art in Kerala tends to veer towards that era, with someone inevitably making that dreaded remark, “Those were the days!”. The theory goes that the particular era was the high point of our political and cultural experiences, from which things have gone only downhill. The era thus has achieved a kind of mythical status.
For Subhash (Neeraj Madhav) and Paul Varghese (Tovino Thomas), the protagonists of Oru Mexican Aparatha , the ideal that they are striving towards is the college’s legendary Left student leader Kochaniyan, who became a martyr on the campus during the Emergency days. A closed, cobwebbed room titled ‘Mexico’ in a corner of the campus, is the repository of his memories. This 1970s nostalgia is one of the reigning themes of the movie.
But, the campus for the past several years has been a stronghold of the KSQ, led by Roopesh (Roopesh Peethambaran). Subhash and his friends are working behind the scenes to start a unit of the rival SFY. (Both names rhyming with Kerala’s major student fronts). A point they are raising to gain a foothold is the oppression of dissenting voices by the party ruling the campus.
Directed by Tom Emmatty, the film is mostly woven around the fight for one-upmanship between the two parties. Much of what passes for politics are shows of masculinity and violence, which though very much a part of campus politics, is not the only thing. Politics, at best, remains peripheral to the happenings.
The film brings together all the elements of a mass entertainer for the youth. Love also comes in, for the sake of it and for the sake of having a song. The female lead (Gayathri Suresh) disappears before she makes her presence felt. There certainly are a few entertaining phases, but a script lacking in novelty and a narrative lacking in any surprises, drags it down. For a film seemingly standing for progressive politics, the jokes around the black skin were quite odd.
If someone wearing a Che Guevara T-shirt can be called a political activist, Oru Mexican Aparatha can be considered political cinema.
Film: Oru Mexican Aparatha
Starring: Tovino Thomas, Neeraj Madhav, Roopesh Peethambaran, Gayathri Suresh
Direction: Tom Emmatty
