Lijo Jose Pellissery is one of India's most interesting and talented directors, and with his second feature of 2017 hitting theaters in Kerala this Friday, he's quickly becoming one of the most prolific mainstream directors out there.
In the spring of this year, Pellissery released his modern gangster epic, Angamaly Diaries, a symphony of chaos that is orchestrated like a two hour fireworks show. Pellissery works in the Malayalam language film industry in Kerala, not a region that typically gets much notice by the national press, but this film was picked up on by the cinephiles in the more influential (read: louder) northern states and quickly declared one of the best films of the year, even being touted as the best Indian gangster film ever by one critic.
Riding the wave of this success, Pellissery is set to unleash his new film Ee.Ma.Yau (translates roughly to R.I.P.) on December 1st in Kerala. The new film is a black comedy set at and around a funeral that goes completely off the rails. Ee.Ma.Yau features Kammatipaadam breakout star, Vinayakan in a leading role, alongside him are Angamaly Diaries scripter Chemban Jose and hot Malayalam language director Dileesh Pothan (Maheshinte Prathikaaram, Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum) as co-leads.
While the film features these three above the title, Ee.Ma.Yau definitely looks like an ensemble piece. I had the opportunity to speak with Pellissery in India last week and got a peek at some of the additional teasers and a full trailer which should be on the way shortly, and suffice it to say, in spite of the relatively tepid logline, he manages to turn this event into a wonderfully out of control bit of chaos, and if you've seen any of his previous films, you'd know that no one choreographs chaos like Lijo Jose Pellissery.
Enough of the blabbing, check out the first few teasers for Ee.Ma.Yau, and hope that the others I saw are sharable on the web soon.