Chilling portrait of Jolly Joseph case

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Nonika Singh

Yet another real life crime documentary, yet another dark side of mankind — actually, womankind. The tale of alleged killer Jolly Joseph plays out differently and not as a regular sordid crime drama. The suspect in ‘Curry and Cyanide’ is a homemaker, a mother of two. How the case, which is sub-judice, made it to the table of the makers is surprising. But then, this is not the first time her story has been told cinematically. Besides a Malayalam serial and a 10-episode podcast, there is also talk of a movie starring superstar Mohanlal.

Nothing perhaps fascinates audiences more than a crime story and when the alleged criminal is an everyday woman, the interest piques even more. To be fair, to give ‘the devil’ her due, the director does try to present the other side by weaving in the arguments of the defence lawyer of Jolly Joseph. Yet, as the hour-and-a-half-long documentary unfolds, all fingers point at the alleged perpetrator who killed six people of the family over 14 years. It’s clearly not an open-and-shut case since linking the deaths over such a long span can’t be easy.

The documentary talks about how the bodies were exhumed once suspicions about their deaths arose. But the fact that except for Jolly’s husband, traces of the weapon of killing — cyanide — were not found in the other bodies is mentioned only in the end credits. Can Jolly, who has reportedly confessed to her crime, walk away scot-free, as her lawyer believes, remains to be seen and would perhaps call for another rendering of events. What is commendable right now is how without blood and gore, National Award-winning director Christo Tomy and writer Shalini Ushadevi paint a chilling portrait of the events that shook Koodathayi town in Kozhikode district of Kerala in 2019.

The story is held together not so much by dramatised retelling, though there are bits of that too. What weaves it into a compelling whole are observations of the actual members of the family, which surprisingly includes Jolly’s son. He shares how he can no longer see his mother in Jolly, who is believed to have killed even a two-year-old child of a man whom she later married. The film follows the usual documentary-making format, which includes interviews with the police, family, neighbours, psychologists, journalists, and juxtaposes some archival footage. The way the makers build up the character sketch of the killer, also a pathological liar who lies about her education and job, is remarkable. The visuals of boiling curry on the gas stove are as haunting as any scenes of bloodied bodies. Of course, in Jolly’s devious scheme, the methods were clean, which is why the alleged murders could be passed off as natural deaths. But there is nothing natural about her instincts.

Does the documentary make us fully understand her motives, except her desire to live a good life and cover up her initial lie? But then, who can truly get into the skin of criminals. This sinister case is as hair-raising as it gets. Streaming on Netflix, the India Today Originals Production chills you to your bones without the ‘chills and thrills’ tropes.