Maturity Rating: U/A 13+
Genres: Documentaries
Directed by Christo Tomy
The new series was released on Netflix on December 22. The true crime documentary is based on the case of Jolly Joseph, who killed six people in cold blood for power and greed, and she was arrested in 2019. The murders were suspected of being done using cyanide.
The series features interviews with people related to Jollyamma Joseph, and their accounts of the crime span over eighteen years. Jollyamma Joseph belongs to a family of farmers from Kattappana in the Idukki district of Kerala and has the dream of living a luxurious life.
Jollyamma, aka Jolly, got married to Roy Thomas in 1997 and moved to Koodathayi in Kozhikode. Jolly’s mother-in-law Annamma, from the start, had been very vocal about her desire for Jolly to pursue a career. Annamma died in 2002, and at the time, it was ruled as cardiac arrest, but a decade after her death in 2019, Jolly was suspected of killing her when she got arrested for the death of her first husband Roy.
The second victim of Jolly was her father-in-law, and his death, even though it raised some heckles, the family hadn’t suspected any foul play. It was after the death of Roy that his uncle Manjadiyali raised some suspicions and demanded an autopsy. It was found he died of cyanide, but Jolly convinced everyone that the case shouldn’t move forward as it was a suicide and it would impact the mental health of her children.
Jolly knew Manjadiyali was one hurdle that kept creating obstacles for her, thus she killed him as well.
All these deaths occurring in this family have made Rojo and Renji, Roy’s brother and sister, extremely wary of Jolly. But the final nail in the coffin is done when Jolly kills Sily and Alphine, the wife and two-year-old daughter of Shaju, a man with whom Jolly was attracted. At the funeral of Sily, Renji saw the facade that Jolly had created, and she began the investigation on her own to find a discrepancy in the postmortem report of Roy and the story Jolly had weaved during his death. Renji and Rojo filed the case, which led to Jolly’s arrest.
The documentaries touched on what was the aspiration of Jolly in committing these crimes, how she did it, and the other suspects in this case. The series has the interview of the son of Jolly as well, who recounts the horror his life became due to his mother.
A story of betrayal, greed, lust, and power that shook Kerala and made us ask the question, has humanity truly left Mother Earth?
Although the series recounts the incidents that led Rojo and Renji to come to terms with the evil lurking in their ancestor’s house, somehow the series lacks in terms of technicality. It’s like we are watching the version of the story from one perspective, and if not for Jolly confessing to the crimes she has been indicted for, the case might have gone in another direction.
The series raises some serious questions about how good Jolly was in her role as an obedient and respectful citizen of society, and no one ever suspected anything. The police negligence when it comes to not taking action after the post-mortem report of Roy indicated the death wasn’t natural.
The family and community support did play a major role in how Jolly was able to stay out of trouble for eighteen years; the red flags around her that have been ignored are a cry for help. As a society, if we find something odd, it is not that unusual that we just keep it to ourselves.
The series could have shown some real clippings or anything related to real-life incidents for more impact. But overall, it was a good series for true crime lovers in general.
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