Bramayugam

 Hey, what about a two-hour and something black and white Indian folk horror epic? I promise it's a good one!

 Bramayugam (which translates as Age of Madness) tells the story of Thevan (Arjun Ashokan), an ex-slave escaping the destruction of his former master's estate in some unspecified conflict. While travelling in the jungle he narrowly escapes the attentions of a Yakshi, a murderous nature spirit, and stumbles upon a dilapidated manor house. There, the cook (Sidharth Bharathan) takes him to the master of the manor - the sorcerer Kodumon Potti (Mammootty); When the old man finds out that Thevan is a folk singer of the panaan, he delightedly takes him in.

 Saved from starvation and the dangers of the wilderness, Thevan soon finds his situation in the mansion is almost as precarious. His host is a fickle lecher who seems to eye him with alternating paternalism, contempt, and hunger. The cook, meanwhile, is almost comically passive aggressive towards both Potti and Thevan. There are also stories of former guests who displeased the master, forbidden chambers, some mysterious entity chained up in the cellar... all that good stuff.

 It's a simple story that could definitely do with some tightening up, but the filmmaking and the characters are strong to support it. Mammootty, in particular, plays a magnificent asshole - it's pretty easy to see why the film gives him one of those rock star entrances where everything pauses as the camera pans from his feet upwards. Ashokan is also very good as the meek Thevan; you can almost hear the gears whirring in his head as the precariousness of his situation sets in.

 Writer/director Rahul Sadasivan and cinematographer mount a handsome production; The black and white isn't quite as visually striking as in Egger's The Lighthouse (another story centered around small number of perpetually sweaty men warily circling each other), but it still succeeds in giving the film a lot of character. There's very little in the way of special effects and next to no bloodshed, but the glimpses that we get of otherworldly stuff are very effective. The film looks gorgeous. It sounds great, as well. 

 The script is easy to follow, but it's hard to say how much I'm missing thanks to the cultural distance, both in the mythical and temporal realms. Power corrupts is a pretty universal message, but I'm left wondering if, for example, Thevan belonging to the Panaan (a historically oppressed people, Wikipedia tells me), carries other points. And it might give the film's ending a bit more meaning, I suspect.

 But the film remains perfectly enjoyable without that dimension. It's not particularly scary, but it's extremely atmospheric, with a great, pervasive sense of menace and many elegant, fairy-tale-like story beats. Recommended.