Assignment paper no 204
Comparative Film Review: A Critical Analysis of Jallikattu and Article 15 Using Film Theory
Personal Information :
Name : Mita Jambucha
Batch : M.A. Sem 3 ( 2024 - 2026 )
Enrollment Number : 5108240015
E-mail Address : jambucha66919@gmail.com
Roll Number : 16
Assignment Details :
Unit- 4:- Film studies
Topic :- Comparative Film Review: A Critical Analysis of Jallikattu and Article 15 Using Film Theory
Paper code:- 22409
Paper - 204:
Contemporary Western Theories and Film Studies
Submitted to:- Smt. Sujata Binoy Gardi, Department of English, MKBU, Bhavnagar
Introduction
Indian cinema has long served as a cultural mirror, reflecting the nation’s social contradictions, political tensions, and psychological landscapes. Two films from recent years—Jallikattu (2019), directed by Lijo Jose Pellissery, and Article 15 (2019), directed by Anubhav Sinha—stand out for their compelling, theoretically rich portrayals of violence, identity, and social order. Although they differ in narrative style, cinematic technique, and thematic focus, both films examine how individuals and communities respond to systemic oppression, primal fear, and disintegrating social structures.
Jallikattu, adapted from S. Hareesh’s short story Maoist, uses the escape of a buffalo in a tribal village as an allegory for masculine aggression, suppressed violence, and the breakdown of human civility. The film is deeply philosophical and visually metaphorical, aligning with theories related to chaos cinema, posthumanism, phenomenology, and the aesthetics of violence.
On the other hand, Article 15 is a socio-political drama inspired by real events such as the 2014 Badaun gang rape and other caste-based atrocities. It situates itself within the frameworks of Marxist criticism, ideological state apparatuses (Althusser), postcolonial theory, and social realism, using investigative narrative structure to expose systemic caste discrimination.
This comparative analysis examines these films using concepts from film theory—including realism, narrative theory, psychoanalysis, Marxism, structuralism, postcolonial theory, auteur theory, and spectatorship studies—to explore how each film constructs meaning and provokes sociopolitical reflection.
I. Theoretical Framework
A comparative film analysis requires a multidisciplinary theoretical foundation. The primary film theories applied in this assignment include:
1. Marxist Film Theory
Marxism analyzes class structure, power relations, and exploitation. In Article 15, caste functions as India’s equivalent of class hierarchy, producing economic and social oppression. This aligns with Louis Althusser’s ideas about how state apparatuses uphold oppressive ideologies.
2. Postcolonial Theory
Useful for exploring how colonial ideologies continue to shape Indian social and cultural hierarchies, especially caste, governance, and bureaucratic morality. Article 15 reflects postcolonial bureaucratic elitism, while Jallikattu deals with indigenous identity and modernity’s corruption.
3. Psychoanalytic Film Theory
Explores the unconscious, desire, and primal instincts. In Jallikattu, the buffalo becomes the embodiment of repressed human aggression, while male characters symbolise Freud’s concepts of the id, ego, and superego collapsing into chaos.
4. Chaos Cinema and Posthumanism
Pellissery uses frenetic editing, soundscapes, and movement to depict a blurring of boundaries between human and animal, revealing the fragility of civilisation.
5. Realism and Social Realism
Article 15 uses realist techniques—understated performances, muted colour palettes, location-based cinematography—to represent systemic injustice truthfully.
6. Auteur Theory
Both Pellissery and Sinha exhibit distinct artistic visions. Pellissery’s kinetic, choreographed chaos forms his signature cinematic style, while Sinha constructs a politically conscious cinema of resistance.
II. Synopsis and Context
A. Jallikattu (2019)
Set in a remote Kerala village, the film revolves around a buffalo that escapes from a slaughterhouse. As villagers hunt the animal, tensions escalate into uncontrolled violence. Masculine ego, tribal identity, environmental destruction, and community politics all erupt, culminating in a surreal, symbolic sequence where humans devolve into bestial frenzy.
B. Article 15 (2019)
A newly appointed IPS officer, Ayan Ranjan, investigates the disappearance and murder of Dalit girls. His entry into the rural caste structure exposes deeply entrenched discrimination, police corruption, and the socio-political mechanisms that sustain inequality. The film draws its title from Article 15 of the Indian Constitution, which prohibits discrimination based on caste, religion, race, or gender.
III. Cinematic Techniques and Stylistic Analysis
A. Jallikattu: Style, Form, and Aesthetics
1. Visual Aesthetics
The film uses handheld camera movements, rapid tracking shots, and low-light naturalistic cinematography to produce a visceral experience. The dark palette, dominated by blacks and deep greens, evokes primal jungle imagery.
2. Sound Design as Narrative
The soundscape—drums, animal growls, collective shouting—functions as a cinematic language of chaos. Sync-sound recording and layered ambient noises simulate a sensory overload, pushing viewers into the heart of the frenzy.
3. Editing and Movement
Pellissery employs fast-paced editing and continuous long takes that convey escalating tension. The village becomes a labyrinth where order disintegrates, aligning with Deleuze’s theory of movement-images.
4. Symbolism
The buffalo symbolizes:
suppressed rage
rebellion against commodification
nature’s retaliation
the fragility of civilisation
Humans lose moral distinction from the animal they hunt, emphasising posthumanist critique.
B. Article 15: Style, Form, and Aesthetics
1. Cinematography and Mise-en-scène
Anubhav Sinha uses:
muted colour grading
long static shots
minimalistic mise-en-scène
to evoke bleakness and oppression. The village appears covered in dust, smoke, fog—visual metaphors for the clouded morality of the state.
2. Dialogue and Language
Hindi-English code switching reflects bureaucratic elitism. Villagers’ dialect reveals caste-based linguistic hierarchies. Language becomes a political weapon.
3. Narrative Structure
Linear but investigative, the film follows detective conventions while exposing socio-political realities. The narrative resembles Italian neo-realism—especially the works of De Sica and Rossellini.
4. Performances
Ayushmann Khurrana’s controlled acting contrasts with the raw emotional intensity of the oppressed caste characters, highlighting power imbalance through performance style.
IV. Thematic Analysis Using Film Theory
A. Caste, Class, and Ideology: A Marxist & Postcolonial Reading of Article 15
1. Caste as Class Hierarchy
The film maps caste onto Marx’s notion of class struggle. The “upper” castes control:
land
police
political organisations
economic access
These structures mirror Althusser’s Repressive State Apparatus (RSA) and Ideological State Apparatus (ISA).
2. Bureaucracy as a Colonial Legacy
Ayan Ranjan’s Oxford background and polished demeanor contrast with rural deprivation. His enlightenment mirrors the “outsider’s gaze” common in postcolonial critique.
3. Violence as Structural, Not Exceptional
Unlike typical crime films, Article 15 highlights how violence is systemic—normalised through social conditioning and institutional complicity.
4. Gender and Caste Intersection
Dalit women become the most exploited demographic. Their bodies become sites of caste-based power display, consistent with Gayatri Spivak’s idea of the “subaltern.”
B. Masculinity, Violence, and the Collapse of Order: A Psychoanalytic & Posthumanist Reading of Jallikattu
1. Masculinity in Crisis
The men in the film compete to prove dominance and strength. The buffalo becomes an object on which they project:
fear
insecurity
suppressed desire
tribal pride
2. Collective Unconscious and the Return of the Repressed
The chaos represents Jung’s collective unconscious—the animalistic instinct hidden beneath civilisation.
3. Posthumanism and Human-Animal Continuum
The film challenges the Anthropocene idea that humans dominate nature. Instead, humans devolve into animals. The final sequence—men forming a monstrous pile—visually represents the breakdown of boundaries.
4. Critique of Modernity
The inability to control a single animal symbolises:
failure of rationality
collapse of social hierarchy
fragility of human superiority
V. Comparative Analysis
1. Chaos vs. Order
Jallikattu: Order collapses into primal chaos.
Article 15: Chaos is hidden behind the illusion of bureaucratic order.
2. Forms of Violence
Jallikattu: Physical, immediate, instinctual.
Article 15: Structural, institutional, caste-based.
3. Representation of Community
Jallikattu: Community is divided by ego and masculine pride.
Article 15: Community is divided by caste and institutional power.
4. Role of the Protagonist
Jallikattu: No single protagonist; collective character dissolves into mob mentality.
Article 15: Ayan is a rational, moral center navigating systemic injustice.
5. Use of Space
Jallikattu: Dense forests, narrow pathways—space creates anxiety and chaos.
Article 15: Open fields, police stations, village huts—space shows hierarchy and segregation.
6. Cinematic Language
Jallikattu: Experimental, nonlinear, symbolic.
Article 15: Realist, narrative-driven, politically direct.
7. Philosophical Concerns
Jallikattu: What makes us human?
Article 15: What makes society just? Who gets to be treated as human?
VI. Social and Cultural Impact
A. Jallikattu
The film sparked debates on:
traditional masculinity
environmental ethics
the brutality of meat politics
the thin line between humans and animals
It also reasserted Malayalam cinema’s global reputation for experimental filmmaking.
B. Article 15
The film influenced:
public discourse on caste
political awareness
media debate on police complicity
It modernised the genre of political cinema in India, placing caste at the center, not the margins.
VII. Conclusion
Both Jallikattu and Article 15 serve as powerful examples of contemporary Indian cinema’s engagement with social, psychological, and philosophical questions. While Jallikattu explores chaos, masculinity, and human primality through experimental techniques, Article 15 examines caste, injustice, and systemic oppression through realist filmmaking. Despite their thematic differences, both films reveal the fragility of human morality when tested by fear, power, or prejudice.
Using film theory—Marxism, psychoanalysis, posthumanism, realism, and auteur theory—this comparative review demonstrates how cinema can illuminate the darkest spaces of society and the human psyche. Together, these films contribute significantly to the landscape of Indian meaningful cinema and offer essential critiques on how humans interact with structures of power—whether natural or social.
References
1. Althusser, Louis. Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses. Verso, 1971.
2. Bazin, André. What Is Cinema? University of California Press, 1967.
3. Deleuze, Gilles. Cinema 1: The Movement-Image. University of Minnesota Press, 1983.
4. Deleuze, Gilles. Cinema 2: The Time-Image. University of Minnesota Press, 1985.
5. Mulvey, Laura. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” Screen, 1975.
6. Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. “Can the Subaltern Speak?” in Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture, 1988.
