Dealing Death, Saving Lives: Forms of Otherness in Adoor Gopalakrishnan's Nizhalkkuthu/Shadow Kill

Abstract

This article will discuss Nizhalkkuthu/Shadow Kill (2002). Adoor Gopalakrishnan's first fulllength feature in seven years, was hailed by critics as one of his most significant accomplishments. In Nizhalkkuthu, the state is portrayed as a highly repressive and coercive mechanism that determines how people live and function. There's virtually no scope for subjective choices, for stepping outside the rigid codes and rituals that govern almost every aspect of human behavior. It's a feudal world that exists outside time and history, where people are trapped within a relentless cycle of events and identities that repeat themselves ad infinitum. In fact, the sense of inevitability is so pervasive that it's accepted without question as a fact of existence. Kaliyappan's identity as the Other is constituted by and exists within this paradigm. As a creation of the state, he must live exclusively on its terms.