In one key scene, an old man sitting in the warmth of a night fire observes, “this land had once been full of animals, and it is still so, look at those two-legged creatures.“ Are humans still basically Neanderthal hunter-gatherers, scooping up everything within reach - even women - while battling to the death for primacy and first dibs on the biggest slab of meat? 'Jallikattu' is a clever, handsomely shot and frequently laugh-aloud sociopolitical critique that asks whether humanity has really evolved that far from its crude beginnings.
- Jake Watt

Read Jake's full article...
https://www.maketheswitch.com.au/article/review-jallikattu-visually-stunning-and-absurdly-funny-sociopolitical-critique

On the surface, Jallikattu is just a movie about an entire village acting bonkers trying to catch a loose bull on the run. But, underneath the simple premise, Lijo Jose Pellissery quite audaciously ventures to create an entire movie as a metaphor for the darker side of humankind.

Boasting of a true ensemble, instead of a single leading actor (unless you count in the bull), Jallikattu's true strengths are its story, cinematography, and background music.

Jallikattu is a stark look at the unfathomable capacity of humans to, at times, devolve into something ugly when gathered in numbers. The movie is a raw look at the worst of human tendencies and, as a result, is quite cynical at times. While an argument can be made that humans are rarely so cruel, the movie tends to skip the in-betweens and jump to the extremes of human atrocities at times (especially, the climax, which was quite harrowing to watch). This is not a light watch, or a movie that one may enjoy rewatching. However, it is definitely worth a watch.

The cinematographer has done a spectacular job throughout out the movie. Though, frankly speaking, I am yet to watch a Malayalam movie having average cinematography.

The background music complements the story very well. Also, given that the movie doesn't have a lot of dialogue, the BGM was always going to be important.

This is the first LJP movie I have seen. And, I can understand why he is so highly talked about as the next big Indian director. As a fan of the movie, I am very much looking forward to watching his other works.