What “Aavasavyuham” did for the genre of “dark comedy” is what the recently released “Darlings” was trying to do- knock it out of the park. Seriously, it is content like this that keeps our faith in movies alive. The twist of thought, the insightful background, and the out-of-the-box execution, brought together so effortlessly—”Aavasavyuham” deserves to be a more popular movie. Let’s see how this plays out.
Spoilers Ahead
How Does Joy End Up In Madhusmita’s House?
Let’s be clear about one thing-when “Aavasavyuham” takes the route of a dark comedy, partly by the storyline and partly by the absurd juxtaposition of science and myth. “Aavasavyuham” plays out like a documentary, or rather, a mockumentary. It traces the journey of Joy, a man of unknown origins who has a special gift—he can attract sea life by making a few sounds. But weirdly, he doesn’t eat fish. Joy lives with a fisherman family and is very helpful to their business. Their daughter, Lissy, is proposed for marriage by a powerful man in the area by the name of Valsan. But Lissy is not interested as Valsan is known to be violent and has a few criminal cases against him. Angered by the rejection, as he and his brother are about to confront her, they are stopped in their tracks by Joy. As the brothers are leaving, they are curious about him, and a little investigation reveals that he is having an affair with Lissy. The couple is on one of their rendezvous when they are stalked by Valsan, his brother, and Plank. Lissy escapes, and so does Joy, but not before killing Valsan. Through these events, we understand that this is a man with some sort of superhuman strength.
The next part of the story starts with Susheelan Vava. He is a debt-ridden fisherman who is out of business. One day, he finds a washed-up body on the shore. It belongs to Joy, who is barely alive. Vava takes him to the hospital, where, shockingly, they pull out insects from his leg. Those are sent for testing, and in the meantime, Joy is in Vava’s care. But Vava doesn’t want him around for too long and asks him to leave. But Joy demonstrates his skill at attracting sea life, and Vava sees a huge earning potential in that display. With Joy’s help, he restarts his fishing business and starts making good money with the catch. Not just that, but he is also able to repay his debts. Here, we notice that Joy feels sad whenever there is a wastage of produce. He sees it as an unnecessary loss of life. As the story progresses, Joy is arrested for fishing after curfew. At the police station, he is beaten up and tortured as he does not reveal his identity and also at the behest of Valsan’s brother, who tells the officers about Joy’s past. Despite beating him repeatedly, when Joy still doesn’t give answers, he is shot in a staged encounter by Valsan’s brother with the help of the police. Unknown to them, Joy has survived, and he makes his way to one of the nearby houses for shelter. That is Madhusmita’s house. When she returns home, she doesn’t recognize Joy as a man. She sees a being who is half man and half sea creature. As she runs out and alerts others, the police are called, as it is against the law to kill certain species of sea life, as Joy, in her current state, is being understood as. The whole situation is sad, confusing, and funny at the same time.
‘Aavasavyuham’ Ending Explained – Who Is Joy? Is He Human?
The police are monitoring the situation outside Madhusmita’s house. Word has spread of a creature who is half man and half frog, taking up residence there. Joy does have webbed hands, and his skin has changed. He is definitely not just human anymore. People come up with various theories about him—some consider that he could be a mutation that happened due to pollution. Others believe that he might be an avatar, while some others theorize that he must be the devil himself. In the whole noise that is created, people from his past, Vava, Lissy, and Valsan’s brother, identify him and come to see him, but are unable to do so. It really is a sad circus happening around a scared man. Eventually, Valsan’s brother decides that he has had enough and can’t wait any longer. He avoids the crowd and sneaks into Madhusmita’s house, and shoots Joy, finally killing him this time.
As long as Joy was alive, he was a source of income for the people around him, be it Lissy’s family, Vava, or even Madhusmita, who had started charging money, along with the police, for people to take a look at him. Probably the only real affection he ever received was from Lissy.
Whatever Joy was, he was not completely human. At one point, he does say that he has no idea where he comes from or which religion he belongs to. And the obvious hints of his superhuman strength and ability to attract sea life. Previously, when the insects found in his leg were sent for testing, it was found that they had turned into plants. This is unheard of in the scientific world. Maybe Joy was an anomaly of nature, or maybe a supernatural being who humans lost due to their foolishness and greed. We would never know and just have to draw our own conclusions about it.
Final Thoughts: What Works For ‘Aavasavyuham’?
We would say everything. It’s a fast-paced and inventive narrative, and most of all, the sheer courage to be that absurd, without the theatrics of over-explaining things to the audience. Additionally, the juxtaposition of the events narrated by the characters to the actual way they unfold is dark comedy gold. “Aavasavyuham” is a subtle commentary on the human exploitation of nature, and it does that with panache, while remaining as wacky as it is. We are going to recommend this to everybody we know. It’s really been a while since we’ve seen such beautiful writing. What a movie!! I hope to see more of that in the future.
“Aavasavyuham” is a 2022 Drama Thriller film directed by Krishand.
