A Climate for Crime

Deeply rooted in the soil and soul of the director’s native Kerala, four stories echo the time of WWII in British India when severe economic crises, unemployment and a lack of necessities occurred. Although each story depicts a different criminal act, from petty theft by the very poor to severe crime by richer, official employees to the questioning and betrayal of human values, the director focuses on the journey one takes towards making the decision to commit a crime rather than on the results of the criminal action. Each of the main characters is caught up in peculiar life circumstances. Some risk everything to achieve something beneficial they think they are entitled to; others face problems in making the right choices.
Starting with A Thief, a story about a boy disappointed by his father’s deeds, the film moves to The Police, about corrupt and merciless law executives, and then heads towards more complex issues of loyalty and serious dilemmas in Two men and a woman, closing with a murder story and a search for love in One woman, two men. Although this never-ending search for a better life, human dignity and love is seriously rendered, it still radiates the romantic idea of human endurance, hope, guilt and a sense of justice. That makes this rather calm and lyrical film, which is obviously deeply culturally rooted, universal. (RS)

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