It begins at a slaughter house amid the squawking of chickens. The protagonist buys a chicken and the title rolls. Debutant filmmaker Larish KM’s recently-released short film Kara makes quite an impact in its opening scene. It revolves around the life of a gangster, played by actor Koottickal Jayachandran, and is about the futility of violence.
Larish K M (left) with Koottickal Jayachandran
Jayachandran, known for his comic roles, is an unusual choice. “But I have always felt that Jayachandran would treat a villainous role well,” says Larish. “Much of the feedback about the film has been on his brilliant portrayal,” he adds.
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Larish, a freelance graphic designer based in Kochi, says his cinematic experiments during the lockdowns resulted in Kara , which he prefers to call a “mini film”. “I wanted to make a film that didn’t have anything to do with COVID-19. I wanted to make it for the sheer experience of making a film,” he says.
The crew members of Kara
The entire crew worked together to create the feel of a feature film, says Larish. “We took great care to see that each detail matched the narrative. Even background score and colour grading were used to enhance the process of storytelling,” he says. The film has been getting praise for its camerawork (Asrith Santhosh), sound design (Sreekanth) and editing (Shevlin). Produced by Mohan Muthirayil, the 23-minute short was filmed in Kochi.
The shooting was completed in three days in January, but post production took time. “I did not want to spoon feed the viewer. Some of the responses I got were from people who watched it more than once. That was satisfying for me as a filmmaker.”
Earlier, in 2017, Larish had made a short film titled Vegatha for the Kerala Police Department to create awareness on road safety.
Kara is available on YouTube.
