Set in a seemingly apolitical milieu of a tattoo artist and his clients, Tattoo , a short film written, directed and produced by Novin Vasudev, evokes memories of an incident of political violence that shook Kerala a few years ago.
The film opens with the tattoo artist reporting a case of a missing person to the police, of a girl who got a particular tattoo done by him on her lower back. But the inspector finds his grievance unfounded since the girl herself had chosen the design and her name and address were not known. The director chooses to reveal the much discussed design at this juncture: the tattoo of a hammer and sickle. Later, a reference to the protagonist's past, in which he was victimised by a group of people blinded by ideology, helps us find the missing pieces.
The movie takes the viewer back and forth in time, juxtaposing a bizarre tattoo studio and a non-descript police station.
Novin, a follower of Left ideology and one who strongly rejects violence in the name of politics, seems to have made a statement here: revolution may not always mean bloodshed. But one may be tempted to differ with this endeavour to equate an entire ideology – one that brought in a definite change to the lives of millions – to mere acts of violence. A truthful account of how the human mind reacts to unfathomable situations, Tattoo is amply helped by its actors – Jain, Preethi Kamala, and Mahesh –as also the cinematography (Rajeev Vijay) and music (scored by Viswajith).
The film,was screened at the International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala in Thiruvananthapuram.
