City of God (2011 film)

City of God
theatrical poster
Directed by	Lijo Jose Pellissery
Produced by	Anitha Anil Mathew
Written by	Babu Janardhanan
Starring	Indrajith Prithviraj Rajeev Pillai Rohini Parvathi Rima Kallingal Swetha Menon
Music by	Prashant Pillai
Cinematography	Sujith Vasudev
Editing by	Manoj
Studio	Mary Matha Creations
Distributed by	Mary Matha Release
Release date(s)	April 23, 2011 (2011-04-23) (Kerala)
Running time	145 minutes
Country	India
Language	Malayalam Tamil

City of God (Malayalam: സിറ്റി ഓഫ് ഗോഡ്) is a 2011 Indian thriller film directed by Lijo Jose Pellissery and written by Babu Janardhanan. The film tells the story of Tamil migrant workers and a team of land mafia criminals in the city of Kochi. It stars Indrajith, Prithviraj, Rajeev Pillai, Rohini, Parvathi, Rima Kallingal and Swetha Menon. The music is composed by Prashant Pillai.

The film uses the hyperlink cinema format as its narrative structure. Although the 2002 Brazilian film of the same name uses this format, along with many other films, it was first used by Satyajit Ray in his film Kanchenjungha (1962).

The film received favorable critical reviews, but it ended up being a disaster at the Kerala box office as it was pulled off from the theatres within one week of release. ^[1]

Plot

The film starts with a road accident and the story traces the life of the four families, which are associated with the accident. Each family have a different perspective on the city of Cochin.

The first story revolves around the life of tamil migrants. One of the tamil migrant Swarnavel (indrajith) has a special affection towards another migrant marathakam (Parvathi Menon). Marathakam, is already married and she ran away from her old husband in Pollachi, due to his unbearable torture. Marathakam and swarnavel knows that they love each other, but they are not expressing it each other. Because of some personal benefits, Lakshmi( Rohini) break their relationship and forced Marathakam to marry another migrant. But on the night of the marriage, marathakam came to know that her new husband was a thief and came towards swarnavel. They realize their love and started to living together. But the second husband takes revenge by bringing the old husband (a rowdy) from Pollachi.On the Next day, swarnavel rescues marathakam from her old husband's hands and trying to escape in a moped and they met with an accident.

The next story deals with the life of business men Sony and his forehand Jyothi Lal (Prithviraj). As per the instructions of sony, jyothi lal and his gangs killed a plot owner, who is the husband of Liji Punnose (Swetha Menon). Liji Punnosse identify her husband's murderer Jyothi lal and is associating with another businessman shamir to destroy sony and Jyothi lal. Liji promised to marry Shamir, if shamir can satisfy her wish to kill jyothi lal and sony by arranging another gang. The business man sony has an eye on the growing actress Surya prabha ( Rima Kallingal). Surya is leading an unpleasant married life with Mehaboob, who is a friend and later became a business partner of sony. Sony with the intention of collecting surya prabha cheated Mehaboob in the construction business and the police remanded mehaboob for the inadequate and unsafe construction practices, which caused the death of the tamil migrant lakshmi. Sony demands and force surya for an illegal relation to get the papers that proves her husbands innocence from his hand. But jyothi lal rescues surya and later jyothi lal rescues surya from a suicide attempt too. Joyothi lal takes surya to sonys guest house to collect the papers and they picked sony on their way and their vehicle is also come across the same accident, which swarnavel and marathakam came across. Sony died at the accident on the spot itself

The gang arranged by shamir and Liji Punnakose arrived at the accident spot and tried to kill Jyothi lal. Jyothi lal escapes from the site with surya and they began to realize the importance of each other in their future life. Liji marries shamir and went to Dubaii for their further business. Swarnavel and marathakam married each other and settled in a village in the final scene.

Cast

• Indrajith as Swarnavel, a migrant Tamilian construction worker who lives in Kochi.
• Prithviraj as Jyotilal, a wealthy youth and the right-hand man of Sony.
• Rajeev Pillai as Sony, a wealthy business-man who has involvement in illegal activities.^[2]
• Rohini as Lakshmi, a Tamilian construction worker in Kochi and freind of Marathakam.
• Parvathi Menon as Marathakam, a Tamil woman who flees her village to escape from her abusive husband.
• Swetha Menon as Liji Punnose, a Dubai-based wealthy business woman who is forced to stay in Kerala after her husband gets murdered.
• Rima Kallingal as Suryaprabha, an actress who is into some disturbed relationships.
• Arun Narayan as Shameen, a land mafia party
• Rajesh Hebbar as Punnose, a business-man and husband of Liji.
• Jagadish as Circle Inspector (C.I.) Pavamani.

Release and critical reception

The film had a delayed release on 23 April 2011.^[3][4] It received predominantly positive reviews from critics. Veeyen of Nowrunning.com said, "City of God is no City of Dreams. It's a raw and bleeding city that wails all night and day. A city where en eternal eclipse has cast a shadow over the rights and wrongs. A city where God has apparently deserted his illusory throne and vanished without a trace."^[5] The reviewer of Indiaglitz said, City of God is a movie with feelings and appeal for the proponents of differently made experimental cinema. Director Lijo, Anil Mathew and their crew needs to be applauded for the efforts in keeping away cliches and commercial thrusts on the narrative structure, though they may find it a little difficult to cruise in the box-office."^[6]

References

1. ^ "Malayalam movies: Non-linear narratives are making the box-office ring louder". economictimes. 21 May 2011. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/business-of-bollywood/malayalam-movies-non-linear-narratives-are-making-the-box-office-ring-louder/articleshow/8478136.cms. Retrieved 2011-06-18. 
2. ^ "Hot doc makes it to Mollywood"
3. ^ "City of God Release Date confirmed". Keralaboxoffice.com. March 1, 2011. Retrieved March 5, 2011.
4. ^ "City of God postponed". Sify.com. March 9, 2011. Retrieved March 9, 2011.
5. ^ "Movie Review"
6. ^ "This City of God belongs to a different genre"

External links

	India portal
	Film portal

• City of God at the Internet Movie Database
• Nagarajan, Saraswathy. "Three tales of a city." The Hindu. 22 April 2011.
• Mathrybhumi article (in Malayalam)
• Pravasivaartha article (in Malayalam)
• Janmabhumi article (in Malayalam)
• City of God Cast and Crew