Thottappan

Definition of mise en abyme : placement at the escutcheon's center: depiction of the escutcheon itself within an escutcheon: image within an image: story within a story.

In one scene in the film Thottapan, a brawl happened while they’re watching a movie in a theater. After they finished with it, they sat back down and continue with the movie.

The screen is showing the protagonist grabbing a coin from the air and looking through it. In the next scene, he looks through that coin towards the characters of Thottapan.

At the same time, we also watching them through his pov. And Thottapan characters are watching us!

It is us watching a film of them watching a film. Then the film they’re watching, are watching them.

Film within a film within a film. It puts us in the middle between two mirrors. Into the abyss.

Mise en abyme.

That is a term used by Dibyendu Mrugaraj upon the observation of the 3 minutes film, Artaud Double Bill, made in 2007 by Atom Egoyan. The film’s two protagonists watching different film in two separate cinema yet shares the video stream of them to each other through handphones.

Which leads to commentary about the modern culture of the internet. Where the majority of us possess a persona in a type of an abyss itself. We need not wait for ‘multiverse’ or ‘metaverse’ to arrive. It is already within us.

The transition happens so slowly it is almost unnoticed until it is too late. They somehow knew humans will resist any sudden and abrupt changes. But that is for another topic, another day.

“Islands which have never existed have made their ways onto maps nonetheless…” wrote the Australian poet, Nicholas Hasluck. This is especially true in literature, where these dots of land have inspired the human imagination and for mythology. illennia. In our constant struggle to conquer, outline and possess the universe we inhabit, the quality of these miniature continents seems to comfort us. They allow us the illusion of possession, to confront our demons (who manifest themselves in solitude and isolation), and to perfectly contain perhaps any narrative. - from the article, 6 Islands in Literature and Why Writers Still Treasure Them

After my first viewing of the film, I can't stop thinking that it has more to it. Then it hits me when I read its Wikipedia synopsis. The whole film takes place on an island. Boom.

That has put Thottappan in the same archetype where other great islands of literature are. Like the Odysseus island of Ithaca, the home of the nymph Calypso, Cyclopes, and the giant Laestrygonians. Also, Thomas Moore's island of Utopia, where the great vices of the old world have been overcome. And of course, the infamous Jules Verne's, The Mysterious Island.

In the (nameless) island in Thottappan, theft is common. Itthaq and Jonappan are a team that mostly rob gold from the churches. In one instance, Itthaq is being sarcastic about God letting the poor thieves die and the rich ones live. Hence why they rob straight from the gods.

"When Christ was crucified, there were only thieves on both sides."

In Thottappan, Sarah has been brought up by Itthaq to serve justice towards the deeds that had happened to her father, Jonappan. The island is her safe haven. The place for her to grow and learn. Preparing her to face her demon, in a form of an outsider, Ismail, who is also a thief.

That has captured Itthaq heart to unite Sarah with Ismail.

The heavens are with Sarah. It is pouring thunderstorm upon the announcement of her marriage with Ismail. A sign of heavenly disapproval and Sarah feels that.

The moon has been with her all along. She cries non-stop when she was a baby, foreseeing the bad omen happening to his father, Jonappan. Yet when Itthaq took her out to see the full moon, she stopped crying. Since then, every full moon, both of them go for a ride on a boat.

Her connection with water takes her into the spiritual realm, as it shows in the ending when she floats underwater as if meditating, right after she served the karma on Ismail. The high camera angle upon the murder of Itthaq by Ismail says that it is witnessed by the heavens and justice will be served. Not by the court or the police, but by Sarah.

It is almost biblical.

Despite the symbolism of Hinduism and Buddhism, the island (without a name) embraced Christianity. And the villain is Arabic-named Ismail. Despite having an image of a god, he is definitely not one. The look can indeed be deceiving. Even a blind shopkeeper and a kitten sometimes can 'see' better.

Thottappan. A tale on a mythological island and a journey into the spiritual.

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