I recently saw a hilarious reel on Instagram, in which an athletic old man was showing off his ability to be "unhurt" by fire. So he takes a small log of burning wood, brushes it over his chest and stomach, and then stuffs it in his pants for a few seconds, before taking it out. It takes maybe a minute for him to realise that he just burned one of his most vital organs. I bring this simile because the men in Krishand's six-hour gangster series "The Chronicles of the 4.5 Gang" get their figurative manhoods and behinds burned on more than one occasion. The reasons are many, starting with a man’s figurative manhood getting insulted, from which point onwards, it's a series of one chaotic event after another, flavoured with dark humour and the requisite pathos.
By now, Krishand, known for such acclaimed and award-winning Malayalam films like "Aavasavyuham" and "Purusha Pretham", has become a filmmaker on par with some of the world's best. Someone whose work encourages a writer to pen long analytical essays or a YouTuber, decoding videos, pretentious or otherwise. I believe Krishand is already aware of this. Perhaps this is why he injects "4.5 Gang" with interesting metaphors, mythological references, and wordplay in a way that looks and sounds deliberately comical. Or perhaps it has to do with the very idea — at the core of "4.5 Gang" — of a storyteller taking creative liberties and putting a singular stamp on the work, without being concerned about how people would accept it.
And "4.5 Gang" happens to be a gangster series where a writer plays a major part as much as the thug or the corrupt policeman they work for. Jagadish plays this writer, who is contacted by a key member of the gang, to write a memoir. But in the course of his narration, the writer reminds the now-seasoned gangster of an important fact about storytelling. I assume Krishand was paying tribute to that line in the 1962 Western "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" in which someone mentions, "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend," meaning if the reality is not interesting enough, add details to make it colourful or exaggerate events to make it sound larger-than-life. "4.5 Gang" is the best example of metafiction I've seen so far.
"4.5 Gang" doesn't have the biggest names in Malayalam cinema, but it has the best actors in the industry (refer to cast list below) — from the independent cinema space, to be specific. However, all these actors have enough talent to make them bigger stars. The closest this show comes to having a "superstar" is a character who happens to be a movie star — Krishand in a cameo, as 'Superstar Vikraman'. Now, that's another way for an auteur to make his presence known without making it all about himself, unlike some names in the Malayalam film business.
I want to write more, but I don't want to spoil others' experiences by writing a tiresome 2000-word essay. I just want to conclude this review by saying that Malayalam cinema finally gets the equivalent of a "Gangs of Wasseypur", "Vada Chennai", or "City of God". It's a story that doesn't give all the answers, but it has enough layers and finesse in its technical departments to warrant multiple revisits.
Series: Sambhava Vivaranam Naalara Sangham (The Chronicles Of The 4.5 Gang)
Creator: Krishand
Cast: Sanju Sivram, Jagadish, Indrans, Prashanth Alexander, Sreenath Babu, Niranj Maniyanpilla Raju, Rahul Rajagopal, Darshana Rajendran, Zhinz Shan, Shambhu Suresh, Geethi Sangeetha, Santhy Balachandran, Anoop Mohandas, Zarin Shihab, Vishnu Agasthya, Hakkim Shahjahan, Sachin Joseph
Rating: 5/5
