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Higuita (film)

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Higuita
Theatrical release poster
Directed byHemanth G Nair
Written byHemanth G Nair
Screenplay byHemanth G Nair
Story byHemanth G Nair
Produced byBobby Tharian & Sajith Amma
CinematographyFazil Nazer
Edited byPraseedh Narayanan
Music byRahul Raj (Songs)
Dawn Vincent (score)
Production
company
2nd Half Productions
Release date
  • 31 March 2023 (2023-03-31)[1]
CountryIndia
LanguageMalayalam

Higuita is a 2023 Indian Malayalam-language political drama film directed by Hemanth G Nair and produced by Bobby Tharian & Sajith Amma. It stars Suraj Venjaramoodu in the title role with an ensemble cast including Dhyan Sreenivasan, Manoj K. Jayan, Indrans, Abu Salim, Vineeth Kumar.[2]

The film title was contested by N. S. Madhavan, who claimed that the film title had denied him a right to a film title based on his short story of the same name.[3] It was released on 31 March 2023.[1]

Plot

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Left-wing firebrand leader Pannyannoor Mukundhan forged in the crucible of left-wing politics of Malabar, always facing threats of violence and even murder.

Ayyapa Das recently joined in the police and is assigned as his gunman. Das's father was a civil police officer, who died while still in service. Impending financial disaster for the family forces Das to take up this responsibility and go for a police job.

Higuita is a tale of contradicting individuals working close to each other and the inherent conflict of the situation.

The film opens with the murder of KJP activist Vinod by the opposite left wing RPI party workers because the former dared to stop the vehicle of their leader Sakhavu Panniyannur Mukundan as part of a protest. Ayyappadas, who is a lazy and timid person by nature, influences the local RPI party members through his friends’ circle and gets a posting in training camp even though its more than 2 years since his father died while in service. Soon enough, he gets posted as the personal gunman of Mukundan at Kannur and is asked to report immediately for the same. Knowing the nature of Kannur political landscape and the dangerous nature of his job, he tries to request the party to cancel the posting but must join since they did not relent, and he must go as part of returning the favor of getting the job. Once he joins, Ayyappadas is intimidated by Mukundan and the people surrounding him, but nevertheless carries on with his routine.

Mukundan is one of the accused in the Vinod Murder case and must attend a court hearing. Just as Ayyappadas was about to leave after escorting Mukundan to the court premises, a jeep of masked assailants threw a bomb in the court compound and stab Mukundan amidst the ensuing chaos. Mukundan is hospitalized in a critical state and Ayyappadas comes under flak for not doing his duty of protecting Mukundan properly. However, Mukundan survives and confirms to police that Ayyappadas has done his job properly, leading to no action being taken against him. After the murder attempt, Ayyappadas gets close to Mukundan and accompanies him around the locality for his routine visits as part of his duty. However, he gets the feeling that someone is following him and starts getting anonymous calls on his phone.

During the party meeting, Ayyappadas is shocked to see the person who stabbed Ayyappadas amongst the party workers and see him discussing something with another party bigwig Gopinathan. Ayyappadas takes his photo secretly and learns that he is a trade union leader Raghu who was the right hand of Mukundan before. Ayyappadas suspects that Gopinathan is trying to conspire with Raghu to finish off Mukundan due to the internal party politics and Mukundan’s growing dominance within the factions. Gopinathan even advises Ayyappadas at the police headquarters to leave the place if he wants to so that he can be replaced with more experienced guys. Mukundan brushes off Ayyappadas’s suspicions when he shares the same with him.

One day Ayyappadas is confronted by Vishnu, the same goon who had committed Vinod’s murder in the beginning of the movie and is taken by force to KJP’s office. Their leader asks Ayyappadas to help them carry out their plan of murdering Mukundan. One the day of planned murder, Ayyappadas does not help them and sticks to Mukundan for protecting him. Again, he is summoned to the KJP leader who reveals that Vinod was killed by KJP party people themselves with the help of Vishnu, since he was having an affair with some one else’s wife. The leader also tells Das that most of the personal vendettas in Kannur are sorted out this way and given a political angle for their own mileage. He is given an ultimatum to bring Mukundan to a preplanned location on the theyyam day to carry out the murder.

On the night, Ayyappadas brings Mukundan to the place as instructed, but fights back at Vishnu and other KJP goons when they try to finish off Mukundan. Police arrive in the nick of time and arrest the KJP leaders and members who conspired. Mukundan, who is impressed by Ayyappadas leaves a note to him that he can stay back or leave the place once he is back from the party meeting. Next day Ayyappadas gets the news that Mukundan has been promoted to the party secretary post and his personal secretary is none other than Raghu who tried to kill him. Perplexed, Ayyappadas recalls his earlier conversation with Mukundan about the Columbian goalkeeper Rene Higuita who used to score goals for his team occasionally even when being a goalie and saving goals for them. He realizes that the entire stabbing incident was planned by Mukundan to strengthen his position in the party and leveraged it to his advantage. In the end it’s shown he moves back to his hometown, but as a tougher person than before.

Cast

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Music

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Rahul Raj was signed in 2020 to compose the film score and songs. However, as the film got pushed to 2022, Rahul Raj composed the songs and opted out of composing the film's background score due to scheduling conflicts. Dawn Vincent was then brought in to compose the background score.

Reception

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S.R.Praveen critic of The Hindu wrote that "Political drama wallowing in stereotypes and half-truths"[4] Princy critic of Onmanorama stated that "The dialogues are thought-provoking, impactful and takes a dig at political opportunism."[5] Anjana George of Times of india gave 3 out of 5 stars "The film have several moments that give goosebumps to 'communist' buffs. But it also tries hard to create icons that are being celebrated around as 'man with two hearts'. It is a movie 'for the communist'.".[6] Cris critic of The News Minute wrote that "Regardless of the stand the film wants to take, the making leaves a lot to be desired. Scenes cut into each other poorly, and characters seem written half-heartedly." and gave 2 stars out of 5.[7]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Suraj Venjaramoodu's Higuita gets release date". The Indian Express. 14 March 2023. Retrieved 15 March 2023.
  2. ^ "Hemanth Nair's 'Higuita', which courted controversy over its title, to release on March 31". OnManorama. Retrieved 20 March 2023.
  3. ^ Bhaskar, Arushi (18 December 2022). "How Colombian footballer René Higuita's name ignited a cultural debate in Kerala". The Indian Express. Retrieved 26 December 2022.
  4. ^ Praveen, S. R. (31 March 2023). "'Higuita' movie review: A political drama wallowing in stereotypes and half-truths". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
  5. ^ "Higuita movie review: Dhyan Sreenivasan, Suraj Venjaramoodu's film is bold dig at political opportunism". OnManorama. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
  6. ^ "Higuita Movie Review : A communist PR exercise?". The Times of India. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
  7. ^ "Higuita review: This Suraj-Dhyan film is a poorly made cliché about Kannur politics". The News Minute. 31 March 2023. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
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