It is during the half way mark of this journey, a few minutes after lunch, that we enter into the other universe that is being constructed by Lijo. If a doorway to Churuli’s (Jose’s 2021 film) universe opened up by the way of a bridge, it’s somewhere during this post-lunch nap-time that we witness reality take a back seat. Similarly, the only handholding we get to understand the rules of Churuli came in the form of an animation sequence that narrated the story of a sage and a pangolin. In Nanpakal, this guide comes in the form of a verse from the Thirukural—‘to sleep is to die, and to wake up from sleep is birth.’ With this verse being read out to James in Tamil, that too with every God in attendance peering down at him, this recital gets the significance of a magic spell being administered. Is this the moment that changes James forever?
The film forebodes this shift in James cleverly: one such hint comes in the form of the movie the troupe watches on their bus journey. Not only do we catch James watching Parampara (1990), a movie in which Mammootty played both father and son, but we enter during a scene in which the two characters meet after a long separation. This is also perhaps the instance from whereon the concepts of duality move up to the foreground.
This is ideal because Nanpakal gets you to rethink the concept of double roles in our movies. This transformation from James to Sundaram happens smoothly, with the ease of a master theatre performer assuming a new character. He simply wakes up from his nap, climbs down from the bus and into the life of Sundaram. It is only later that we notice how the screenplay had already planted clues to further the dichotomy between the two men in one body. For instance, James seems to hate the payasam-like sweet tea of Tamil Nadu even though Sundaram wants even more sugar in his. Another line suggests how James is likely an agnostic even though it is obvious from Sundaram’s prostrations that he is as devout as they come.