AAMIS Review - A Brilliantly Directed Mood Thriller

Suhansid Srikanth

Aamis, written and directed by Bhaskar Hazarika is a mood thriller that quietly or should I say, very queitly unfolds. Outwardly, it is a love affair that develops between a married woman (Nirmali) who likes her meat broilered and a teenager (Sumon) doing his Ph.D studies on different meat habitat all over the world and practising the same. As the story progresses, we learn it is quite more than that. The film slowly sheds light into the darkest of places in the minds of its characters.

How the love story tangles them together is beautifully conceived and captured. Riju Das's cinematography paints an aesthetics without much efforts. The uneasy quietness that occupies all over the story or perhaps, the film itself is translated cleverly through the camera work. Quan Bay's subtle yet psychologically trippy scores put you right in the mood amidst them in the film's universe.

Lima Das who plays Nirmali is brilliant. Her tonal shift from this confused lover who is insecure yet standing at the brim of madness to this woman she becomes at the end, almost cannibalistic is terrific. Arghuadeep Baruah plays Sumon, a naive teenager cherishing the pleasure out of this visceral relationship. His physicality and looks add so much to the description of his character.

The contrasting scenarios they are headed up with creates the drama. Nirmali has a very conventional husband who likes meat for just what it is. Elias, a friend or Bhai of Sumon is totally against how he is going out of way and off the track for this woman. And when he goes on and on into this relationship, the narrative kind of makes us view the story through Elias. We are as anxious and afraid as Elias.

The treatment of the film is written subtly through their curious exploration and exchange of meat. They start with mutton and get into its varieties. They taste rabbit then. And it is when they eat bat meat, they realize where they stand in their relationship. It is when he talks about people in the world eating lizards and other bizarre reptiles, she gets turned on.

The film hardly captures any physical involvement of them. But, literally the 'physical' aspect of their love comes through in a different sense. He starts cooking a piece of him for her. And then, it becomes routine. He slits a piece of flesh every now and then. And these portions hold a corny tone of violence in it. The kind of violence that underlines the intense stretch the film is getting into. When this experiment goes beyond control, the third act unveils in a ruthlessly chilling way.

 Bottomline

Aamis, a dramatic thriller, written and directed by Bhaskar Hazarika is an unusual exploration of human quests and darkness in the most uneasy way possible. With brilliant direction and performances, the film is totally worth a watch.

 Available at moviesaints.com for digital renting.

 Rating : 4/5