Dies Irae: A Mixed Bag of Ambition and Excess

 I watched the Malayalam movie Dies Irae recently, and honestly, I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about it. It's one of those films that sits uncomfortably in the middle—not bad enough to regret watching, but not good enough to recommend enthusiastically to friends either. You know that feeling?

 The Excess Problem

Look, I get it. Sometimes smoking and drinking are part of establishing a mood or showing us who a character is. But Dies Irae takes this to another level entirely. The characters smoke constantly—like, in almost every scene. At first, I thought maybe it was meant to show something about their state of mind or lifestyle. But after the tenth or fifteenth cigarette, I started wondering if someone on set got a really good deal on prop cigarettes.

The drinking scenes were the same story. Everyone's perpetually holding a glass of something, and honestly, it started feeling less like character building and more like filler. I found myself thinking, "Okay, we get it, they drink." A couple of well-placed scenes would've been so much more impactful than this constant barrage.

Things Left Hanging

Then there's the whole issue of things not being explained properly. I spent a good chunk of the movie waiting for certain plot points to make sense, but they never quite did. Character motivations felt murky, and some story beats just... happened without much setup or payoff. It's like the filmmakers expected me to connect all the dots myself, but they didn't give me enough dots to work with. That's frustrating, especially when you're genuinely trying to engage with what's happening on screen.

That Scene with the Driver

But here's what really got under my skin: there's this scene where Rohan, the main character, completely loses it on his driver. Why? Because the driver made a phone call to Rohan's dad. That's it. And watching Rohan shout at this guy, I couldn't help but think about how often we see this kind of thing in Indian movies.

Is This Just an Indian Cinema Thing?

I started wondering: is this talking down to household help and employees just a standard feature of Indian films? Because it really does seem to show up a lot. Whether it's drivers, domestic workers, or other service staff, there's often this casual disrespect that goes completely unchallenged in the narrative. Sometimes it's even played for laughs, or framed as the hero being "stressed" or "intense."

Now, I'm not saying every Indian film does this, and there are definitely filmmakers who are pushing back against these tropes. But it's common enough that it stood out to me yet again.

What About Hollywood?

So naturally, I asked myself: do Hollywood films do this too? The honest answer is not really, at least not in the same way.

Part of it is cultural context. The whole employer-domestic help dynamic isn't as common in American households, so you just don't see as many drivers, housekeepers, or personal staff in Hollywood movies to begin with. When there are service workers—waiters, hotel staff, assistants—and a character treats them badly, it's usually meant to tell you something negative about that character. The audience is supposed to think, "Wow, what a jerk."

I mean, think about movies where rich characters are rude to servers or staff. We're meant to dislike them for it. It's a character flaw, a red flag. But in many Indian films, the same behavior from the protagonist just... exists. It's neither praised nor condemned. It's just there, normalized as part of the world.

A Missed Opportunity

The frustrating thing about the scene in Dies Irae is that it could've been a moment to actually examine these power dynamics. But instead, it just happens and we move on. No reflection, no consequence, no point being made. It's just Rohan being angry at someone who can't really push back.

Final Thoughts

So where does that leave Dies Irae? Somewhere in the middle, I guess. It has ambitions—you can see the filmmakers were trying to create something with edge and atmosphere. But between the cigarette smoke and the whiskey glasses and the unexplained plot threads and the casual mistreatment of staff, it never quite comes together.

Maybe what bothers me most is the feeling of wasted potential. If the excessive smoking and drinking had been dialed back, if the story had been clearer, if that scene with the driver had actually meant something or examined something rather than just being another forgettable moment of a boss yelling at an employee... this could've been a much better film.

As it stands, Dies Irae is watchable but forgettable. Not bad, not great—just... there. And honestly? I expected more.

PS: I used AI to write this post as I'm not as good as The Banished Prince in writing well but the thought behind the post and the ideas are all mine.