Amma Ariyan
John Abraham's communally-made road movie shines a light on revolutionary politics in 1980s Kerala.
In Western appreciations of Indian cinema, the legacy of films made in South India has often been left out, an omission that is beginning to be rectified after the recent stateside successes of action epics in the Telugu language. John Abraham’s 1986 film Amma Ariyan, made in the Malayalam language of India’s coastal Kerala state, provides an utterly different window into South Indian filmmaking.
The down-to-earth story of Purushan (Joy Mathew), who journeys through the country to find the mother of a dead jazz drummer, was made under the banner of the Odessa Collective, which raised the production budget through street performances and small donations, rather than studios or financiers.
Deeply engaged with the radical politics of its time and place, Amma Ariyan’s recent restoration was the only Indian film invited to the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.
