Dies Irae: Fanatically Yours

Star Cast: Pranav Mohanlal, Sushmita Bhat, Gibin Gopinath, Jaya Kurup, Shine Tom Chacko, Arun Ajikumar, and Saiju Kurup 

Music Composed by Christo Xavier 
Sound Design by Jayadevan Chakkadath 
Sound Mixing by M R Rajakrishnan 
Edited by Shafique Mohammed Ali 
Cinematography by Shehnad Jalal 
Written and Directed by Rahul Sadasivan 

When you write a letter, at least in school, Yours Sincerely, Yours Faithfully, Yours Lovingly, or Yours Humbly had to be attached before signing off. Dies Irae is a different kind of signature that wants to haunt you but decides to leave you with more questions than answers. These questions are internal and completely pragmatic. None of them are designed to overstay their welcome, they are designed to go beyond. In a film like Bramayugam [2024], we are left wondering… what is the Brama (hallucination)? Is it the circle of desires or the circle of life that never lets us escape from those desires? Rahul Sadasivan has a knack for capturing the fear of humans succumbing to desire and we can see flashes of such brilliance in Dies Irae, too.

Pranav Mohanlal’s character, Rohan Shankar, is introduced by conducting the “act of sin“. While the female character has a boyfriend and is committed, she doesn’t want to give up on the opportunity of a hook-up, and he is the least bothered about her condition. He is acting on his impulses and not considering the consequences of his act. Does he need to? From a very young age, he has experienced privilege and wants to be alone from his family. He doesn’t really connect with his sister or mother or show any sort of emotion towards them. He feels it is his weakness and wants to just concentrate on being free of any responsibility whatsoever.

When such a person comes across the strongest “emotional fools”, he starts transforming into one himself. This transformation comes across as rational and different from obsessiveness that can only be associated with emotion. You see how his love for Kani was exciting to a limit but not more than that. On the flip side, we see Kani being immersed in love with him. She wants to capture each moment with him, which looks “clingy” and “uncomfortable” at the outset. A person who doesn’t like any responsibility cannot handle such an intense emotion for sure.

You see the way her body has been brought up from the well, where her hand seems to be waiting for someone to pull her out of the abyss she dug herself into. You can notice that her eyes have been longing for a familiar, heartbreaker’s embrace and smile. You can also see how she is unable to handle the overpowering emotions and fear before she did the inevitable. She wanted herself to be haunted by Rohan, but she found an unwanted person, who is doomed to die – Manu Philip, haunting her. Can she escape his wrath and find the person whom she yearns for? The shot division during the second time Rohan experiences someone’s presence in his home is highly important.

Kani wants to embrace Roshan while the man who wants her tries to kill him. You can see how in contrast the camera shakes and the shot composition changes between the two. While he is afraid to move away from the house, he cannot abandon it unless he knows there is a way out to escape from the loop of haunting memories. Rahul showed sparks everywhere, but his character development of Kani and Manu, and even Gibin Gopinath’s Madhu, is underwhelming. In Bramayugam, you see how Chathan grows on everyone, we also get the traits of the others. In a very secluded setting with just three characters, we were engaged because of their distinct personalities. Here, Pranav has a major character arc, but even that compassionate individual’s development in the climax feels half-baked and sudden at times.

We see Pranav is not being such a compassionate or respectful person, as he walks into the house wearing footwear while no one else does. We see him not completely guilty, but playful with Kani’s hair clip. Hence, we can deduce that he never wanted to do much more than have a fling with a beautiful woman, but not by force. Now, Kani’s side of the story is left under-explained. We get hints of her obsession, but why did she die?? Rahul hopes that we understand that she is haunted by the same love that she feels for someone, but directed at another person. She definitely wanted to escape from the world that was pushing her into a complex web of overthinking. You see how her brother kept observing her but could never help her. His guilt is visible, but he is unable to understand it completely. Hence, Manu is triggered when he says that he feels disgusted.

Further, we are shown Manu’s mother as being obsessed with saving her child’s memories. The love or obsession felt by the three characters: Manu, Kani, and Manu’s mother Elsamma is all similar. Is it an uncontrollable urge to not let go of the positive emotion they feel in their negative lives? Rahul gives a hint by stating that Manu knew he was going to die and he always wanted to live after death. It is obvious that he wanted Kani to die and join him. In the first half, if you carefully observe, Pranav seems to be haunted by not one but two ghosts. He is being treated diabolically, both with love and hate. Manu’s powers could have been greater than Kani’s for her to be able to overpower him. Still, there is a lot left for us to decipher and we hope that is right rather than being explicitly told and spoon-fed. Rahul falters in connecting with the characters due to this, and what seems like a major inspiration from the films of F. W. Murnau, Ari Aster, and Alfred Hitchcock ends up feeling like a rather half-baked attempt.

Major problem lies in Kani’s story and Manu’s obsession being explored from Pranav’s point of view, which largely concentrates on just ending the haunting. This doesn’t really allow the same level of connection that a Boot [2003] from Ram Gopal Varma is able to offer. There are many shots and highly designed set pieces but everything doesn’t come into the circle in the way the director really wanted it to sit. We can say this, as the director is careful not to let cliches enter a story that is as cliched and old as cinema itself. But that different perspective leaves us with underwhelming aspects, like Madhu’s character getting more importance than Manu or Kani. We see a fanatic filmmaker at work in major portions, but the climax seems to have been constructed in a very convenient manner. For example, a person like Madhu, who can perform rituals or has the knowledge, still going without protection even after being haunted doesn’t bode well. At places, the narrative feels too one sided and hence the fanaticism feels overpowered by the technical brilliance. A much better deep dive into the scripting loopholes would have made it as good as Bramayugam. Overall, the movie offers a realistic end to two obsessive souls yet leaves behind one obsessed with selfishness as the leading man. One obsessed soul got salvation, another seeks it in Pranav’s arms, but the man who triggered it all ends up trapped in a vicious circle. Hence, the movie also feels convoluted, like a man climbing out of a dungeon in loops, creating a paradox for himself.

Theatrical Trailer: