Given a choice between the predictable and the prohibited, what would you go for? How far would you go to gratify your greed for the forbidden? Have you ever considered exhibiting your deepest desires uninhibitedly? Have you ever thought what you apprehend to be taboo might be a mere social construction, perhaps even the most normal thing to do in another time or place? What if it’s a desire for consuming human flesh?
In Lijo Jose Pellissery’s 2019 film Jallikattu, a group of Kerala villagers go out to capture and kill a buffalo that has escaped from the butcher’s shop. The hunt descends into horror as, in their lust for the animal, the villagers themselves transform into beasts.
