Bheeshma Parvam Movie Ending Explained & Themes Analysed: Directed by Amal Neerad, Bheeshma Parvam is an action thriller film. A tense drama that revolves around the lives of gangsters, told in a highly stylized manner for which the director is known. With an esteemed actor like Mammootty, the film achieves a certain gravitas that makes it a treat for the admirers of his work. Besides him, the film boasts a great star cast with Soubin Shahir, Shreenath Basi, and Shine Tom Chako to name a few.
I must note that while watching it on streaming, I wished I could have caught it on a big screen – where the action extravaganza would have been a grander experience. Alas, the film has enough dramatic tension to sustain without the need to depend on a theatrical experience. The drama occurs not just due to the conflicts in the script but because of its string of powerful acting performances. The heightened theatricality from their acting fuses seamlessly with the style that the director utilizes for this film.
The film has an unmistakable resemblance to the Godfather trilogy. The themes of revenge, greed, and power are there just like in the classic trilogy. But just a look at its cinematography filled with low-key lighting and the color palette dominated by the brown, and yellow ochre can make you recall the Coppola films. That being said, there is no greater significance behind the shot selection or camera movements. There is no deeper meaning behind its stylistic choices besides setting a particular mood. While that does not make Bheeshma Parvam a bad film, it certainly limits it from being a masterpiece.
Just look at the overuse of slow-motion shots. While it is up to the cinematographer and director what they think suits them best to narrate their tale, they seem redundant after a point. The dramatizing effect is achieved with this particular stylistic choice. But its continuous use limits the film’s creative ability to explore newer ways to express.
There are also those moments where some of the ordinary characters suddenly start behaving like trained assassins. Such moments have a dramatic logic, which makes them not register as odd or particularly jarring. The shots are also aesthetically pleasing, which gets a boost of energy from the excellent soundtrack. But the action appears overdone to fit the logic of feasibility.
Let’s look at the events from the film’s narrative.
Bheeshma Parvam Movie Summary & Synopsis:
The Anjootti family is one of the most influential ones in the city of Kochi. Michael (played by the ever-reliable Mammootty) is the Don (head) of this family, who owns the keys to their family’s wealth. He became the Don after the death of the family’s oldest sibling, Paily. Despite being the second oldest son of the five, Mathai was not given this position of power – which makes him and his children (Peter & Paul) hold grudge against Michael.
After Paily’s death, his wife, Fathima marries Ali (one of Michael’s close friends) and has two children Ajas (Soubin Shahir) and Ami (Shreenath Basi). While a majority of the Anjootti family does not like this branched-out family, Michael loves them dearly. In the past, he had killed the people who were behind Ali’s murder. Because of that incident, the town fears him and his position of power is seen more through the lens of that fear than through love or admiration.
Ami and Ajas are hardworking and their values align with those of Michael. On the other hand, Peter and Paul are freeloaders, and just like their father, are idlers. This makes Michael give his godown space to Ami for his cafe business – as a chance to put the space to good use, but deny Peter or Paul a chance to get the keys to the same. During that time, Ami creates a strong bond with Rachel (daughter of the youngest sibling of the five, Susan) and their relationship does not sit right with her father and brother. Both the situations ruffle some feathers and make the bunch of entitled people from the family join hands and work out a plan against Michael.
To hurt Michael, they try out different strategies. They get local politician, James on their side – who is the brother of Peter and Paul’s mother. They also get Bada Rajan in their gang of conspirators, who is a young criminal from Mumbai with roots in Kochi. Rajan’s father was killed by Michael which makes him return to Kochi with the hope to set the record straight under the garb of offering a business opportunity. Michael outright dismisses Rajan’s proposal, which angers all of the conspirators even more. Their anger takes them to do every conceivable thing to emotionally hurt Michael. They stab Ami right after his cafe’s opening. The overheard news of Peter and Paul having a role in Ami’s murder makes Ajas burst out and beat both of them. While Michael stops his outburst, he tells Ajas how he would personally end both their lives if the news is indeed true.
After Ami’s death, Susan and her son Able move out of their home. After learning about their suspicions about Martin’s involvement in the death of Ali and Paily, Michael sets out to take revenge. Later, Michael is attacked by a gang of thugs controlled by Rajan. During the fight, his second hand, Shivankutty dies while he gets hospitalized. After regaining consciousness, Michael decides to take revenge against the villains from his family.
Bheeshma Parvam Movie Themes Explained:
Tryst for Power:
The themes from Bheeshma Parvam are the ones that The Godfather films have explored – especially what the first film did. The succession in the family occurs in a similar manner, although not identical. From a person who inspired fear in every other person in the city, the position is given to someone who is not seen as the successor for he did not choose violence as an answer. They get the position of power from the feeling of fear about them – whether the image created them or they created it themselves.
Power, wealth, goodwill – all of it plays a significant part in shaping the narrative and the character choices. The men are greedy, corrupt, and hungry for a position of power – from which they can be as reckless as they want. Just look at Peter bashing out on a performer from a film that he was producing. You can clearly see him establishing a power relation with the dancer – and sense his incessant need to assert himself as the powerful one.
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Fragility of Men & Sexism:
Sexism is another theme that is explored in the film – where the freeloader men get their fragile egos hurt by the mere possibility of their spouses gaining a position of more influence than them. The hollow showcase of power makes such shallow men the despicable ones in the script, while the good ones are also tainted by their pasts. The effort by the writers to bring in the moral greys is admirable.
The motivation of each character, leading to the conflicts in the film, is rooted in the idea of revenge. The film presents a cyclical nature of revenge where motivations are what define how the characters are perceived.
Bheeshma Parvam Movie Ending Explained:
Ajas joins hands with Michael in his revenge plan against the villains in the family. He meets James and hands him a file containing all his corruption, which gets him arrested. Then, he gets Simon arrested, Peter killed, and orders Paul to leave Kochi with his family.
Later on, Bada Rajan also gets executed on an order from Michael and Chotta Raj (another goon of Bombay). In the end, Michael retires from his position as Don, and Ajas becomes the new head of the Anjootti family. With this shift, the film establishes the overturn of the power being circumstantial – and the way our choices lead us to how our lives become.
The ending can also be looked at from a moral standpoint. Ajas, who has been a good family man, and who always treated his wife with the utmost respect wins over the gang who treated women as mere objects for their male fantasies. The person who hitherto defied violence aces over the greed and corrupt world. So the ending can also be perceived as a moral win.
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