Dileesh Pothan’s Joji (Malayalam, Amazon Prime Video) is a superb reworking of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. We already have Maqbool, among Vishal Bhardwaj’s finest films, and Jayaraj’s opulent Veeram (Malayalam), starring Kunal Kapoor, that used kalaripayattu. Joji is a stripped-down Macbeth, whose alchemy is significantly, but convincingly, altered. Its authoritarian patriarch reminds you of Bhaskar Patelar in Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s powerful Vidheyan (The Servile, 1994), starring Mammootty. Above all, Joji is Macbeth in the time of Covid-19, whose elements are integrated into the story.

The original Macbeth, a tale of ambition and guilt, is of Scottish General Macbeth who, primarily driven by Lady Macbeth, commits several murders in order to become King of Scotland. Joji is more a reflection on the cyclical nature and inheritance of pathological violence and authoritarianism between generations: Joji becomes like the man he detests the most, his father. Written by the brilliant Syam Pushkaran (Maheshinte Prathikaaram/Mahesh’s Revenge, Thondimuthalam Driksakshiyum/ The Exhibit and the Witness, Kumbalangi Nights), Joji is engrossing, even as it becomes a game of observing its departures from Macbeth. There are no witches’ prophesies, nor Birnam Wood, nor military conquests; Lady Macbeth is not the prime antagonist. Joji (Fahadh Faasil) is not a general, but one of three sons of Kuttapan Panachel (PN Sunny), along with Jomon (Baburaj) and Jaison (Joji Mundakayam). *Spoiler alert: All three are after the property of their bed-ridden dad, a terrorising patriarch, so the slew of murders are driven by greed and an anxiety not to get caught, not ambition or guilt. *Spoiler ends. Joji is Macbeth and Lady Macbeth rolled into one; prime antagonist Lady Macbeth (Bincy, Unnimaya Prasad) is here more as a conniving sister-in-law, not his wife, but Jaison’s.