Who , which released yesterday, is not your average film assures its director Ajay Devaloka. Its trailer has evoked curiosity and nothing gives away what the plot might be. “The film falls in the broad category of the psychological genre, one that is seldom made, at least in commercial cinema, even in Malayalam.”
A lot of thought has gone into the film, which is part of a three-part series of films. Isabella and Galileo are the others planned in the trilogy, the film doesn’t follow that pattern either. “Although each of the films is a part of the whole, they are entities on their own making sense as individual films as well,” Ajay says.
This is the Mumbai-based editor’s first directorial venture. “Extensive homework has gone into the film, there are multiple timelines – when it came to pre-production too it was tough co-ordinating every aspect of the film especially since the timelines have to align.”
The film, set in fictional Mercada, pivots around a married couple, and what happens to them one Christmas day. “The narrative is non-linear, the story multi-layered and open to interpretation.” Dream, memory, flashback...all come into play.
To get the actors into the ‘mind space’, they were shown films from the genre so that they would ‘get’ the film as “the story telling pattern was different and new for them. And they have done their best.” The film also stars Rajeev Pillai and Pearle Maaney, besides others.
Shot in Uttarakhand, in ‘un-filmed’ territory, Ajay made good use of the geography and the climate, especially the mist which lent itself to the mood of the film. He agrees that the idea may seem complicated to wrap one’s head around but he is confident that given the openness of the Malayali audience to new cinematic experiences this experiment will work.
Three-film series
He scripted Isabella first, and at the end of its writing he realised the story couldn’t be contained in a two and a half hour film, hence came up with the idea of a three film series.
The technical crew includes cinematographer Amith Surendran, music by Catharsis and Manikandan Ayyappa, sound design by Vishakha Bokil and mixing by Sinoy Joseph. “Sound is an important aspect of the film. We spent close to three months working on creating the ‘sound’ of Mercada, it is essential to conveying the feel of the film. We are releasing the film only in halls that are equipped with Dolby Atmos.”
The Calicut native studied forensics and criminology for four years before he quit in order to pursue cinema. “I did a course on visual effects and animation which whetted my curiosity and here I am.” He is the editor of films such as Saint Dracula 3D , Katari Veera sura sundrangi 3D , I am From Kolkata , Ennennum Ormmyaykkai, Bul Bul Maina, The Last Vision and Raktharakshassu.
Ajay is confident of his first release, “Malayalis are intelligent, lovers of cinema and I am certain that the film will appeal to a niche audience. And for the others, it will tempt them to return to watch it again. The audience has to be weaned from the pattern of storytelling we are used to. I assure you the film will be a cinematic experience,” he says.
