Krishnendu Kalesh’s debut film Hawk’s Muffin eludes classification and exists free of genre boundaries. The film, which is currently being screened at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) in the Bright Future category, is perhaps unlike any other Malayalam film in its external form, though the themes it speaks about have appeared in various films.
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This daring form, laudable for its experimentation, can at the same time work against the film, as it can be quite a task at times to make sense of and comprehend some of the surreal sequences.
It all begins with the dropping of an atom bomb, and the pilot being asked to go into hiding. In the post-apocalyptic world, we are inside a house in the middle of a green expanse. Ruby (Ketaki Narayan), who seems to be the heir of the house, and her bed-ridden mother (Nina Kurup) are under the oppressive control of a bunch of rugged men, including her stepfather, a gun-toting stranger (Jayanarayan T.) and his minions and a man who claims to be from the police (Nithin George). Things take a turn with the arrival of an alien-like person (Rajesh Madhavan) with whom Ruby falls in love.
Krishnendu Kalesh
Although the overarching narrative is quite direct, the themes the film points at are not so. War, plunder of land and oppressive controls by dictatorial minds who wield power are all densely packed within.
Inspiration
“This is a concept that came to us rather quickly, when we were all under lockdown during the first wave of COVID-19. We were staying in an isolated estate, where the film was later shot, and the sense of isolation led to these ideas. The pandemic period has provided governments and corporates more opportunities to implement controls and restrict people. The film is almost presented as a conspiracy theory. The house itself is a microcosm of a larger war,” says Kalesh in an interview to The Hindu .
There was no conventional script for the film, rather a 15-page essay, which served as the reference point for the shooting. Reflecting the power structure inside the house, only the men have dialogues, most of which are written around their petty fights and plans for further encroachments, while the women communicate as in a silent film. A large part of the film has to do with its VFX, handled by Thoufeek Hussain. Kalesh is unperturbed by concerns of whether many would find the film incomprehensible.
“It is part of our habit that we should understand everything that we see on the screen and that the film should end with a full stop, all questions answered. It need not be so. The film requires people to approach it like a book, making interpretations as they go along. Here, the protagonist, whom we follow, herself is in a confused state of mind. The viewer is required to have the same curiosity as she displays. But there are visual clues for everything. We have also taken care to ensure that it is not too abstract, and frequently we return to mainstream cues,” says Kalesh.
Kalesh begins the film with tributes to Vaikom Mohammed Basheer (with his famous quote on how an itch worth scratching can sometimes save the world from war) and to filmmakers Georges Meiles, Andrei Tarkovsky and Hayao Miyazaki, all of whose visual styles can be noticed in the film.
“None of them was in my mind when I was shooting the film. But when I watched the final print, I could notice all their influences and so I decided to add tributes to them later,” says the director.
