Living on the Edge: The Vestigial World of Adoor Gopalakrishnan's Elippathayam/Rat Trap

Set against the backdrop of his native Kerala-the locale of virtually all his films—Adoor Gopalakrishnan has produced a loose trilogy which focuses on the vestiges of feudalism. The trio-Elippathayam/Rat Trap (1981), Vidheyan/ The Servile (1993), and Kathapurushan/The Man of the Story (1995)—feature men from land—owning families who grapple with the challenge of living in a post—feudal society. These films are, in effect, is a study of a consciousness shaped by the destructive ideology of a system that has lost its historical frame of reference. To make a mockery of keeping such a system alive is to court neurosis and perversion.