The biblical context of Santhoshathinte Onnam Rahasyam (Joyful Mysteries) is hard to miss. Even before the curtains rise (anachronistically speaking), the title evokes the nativity tale: the annunciation of divine conception by the angel to Maria, mother of Jesus. As the film rolls one is not disappointed - it’s a modern day tale of an unwed woman named Maria (Ah!), who tries to grapple with an impending life-churning announcement. Maria (Rima Kallingal) is on the way to the hospital to confirm her pregnancy. Her partner Jitu (Jitin Puthenchery), who drives the car, seems to be as uncertain as Maria about what’s in store. He’d rather read his phone chats than worry about the future while Maria obsessively dwells on it. (Spoiler Alert: The film is about to be discussed threadbare.) The camera, the unblinking eye, immovably fixed on to the dashboard, picks up the minutiae- the tensions, the dread, the teeny weeny facial expressions, while the complex questions of nurturing, abortion,
Manappe sits on the verandah of her home at Thekkupana Ooru. She is unlettered she says M a nappe, an old woman, sits on the verandah of her home in Thekkupana Ooru (hamlet), Attapady, a tribal belt in Kerala, clutching a bag of beans that she has foraged for in the wild. We ask her age, she shrugs saying she does not know. With a sigh of resignation, Manappe says she has no padippu (education). She gesticulates with her thumb, explaining that she uses her digits for everything, including “voting”. For a moment, one confronts a Newtonian dilemma (as in the Hindi film) and wonders if it’s a thumb impression that sets the electoral exercise of the largest democracy rolling. Of course, it is. Kalliamma feeding her goats at her home in Thekkupana Ooru. She pins her hopes on 10-year-old Rangappan, who is attending classes at Project Shine But, times are a changing and, the winds of learning are ruffling and shaking up the backwardness of sleepy, la