Last year, Malayalam literature witnessed the arrival of a novel that probed Kerala’s vicious patriarchy, well hidden under its often-quoted social indicators. Award-winning author KR Meera's Jezebel was about the inquisition of a young doctor seeking divorce from her cruel husband from an arranged marriage.
It is now the turn of Malayalam cinema to echo the cries for change within a moribund social structure. In first-time director Anand Ekarshi's Aattam (The Play), it is a young actor who is facing a barrage of questions after she names a man who sexually assaults her.
Part of Focus South Asia at the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, Ekarshi's debut feature tells the story of twelve men from a theatre troupe deliberating about how to handle the sexual assault of a female colleague by an actor without wrecking their company and careers while standing up for a hapless fellow worker.
The 129-minute film, which has just been selected to open the Indian Panorama at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), Goa, later this month, is set in Arangu, a theatre company staging their new production. Anjali, the troupe's only female actor, is molested by a troupe member during the after-party organised at a tourist resort.
A powerful statement against patriarchy without disguising toxic masculinity as a mental health issue and not a vile social and cultural construct like many blockbuster Malayalam movies have portrayed, Aattam lands punches at all corners, no holds barred.
Director Anand Ekarshi.
Written as he remained locked inside his home in Kalamassery near Kochi during the pandemic, Ekarshi's script is a study of the behaviour of groups and individuals within the prevailing social structure. "The film is not inspired by any real-life stories," says the director, a busy actor and director in Malayalam theatre. "It explores if justice is the responsibility of an individual or the society."
A Master's in psychology, Ekarshi was initially not set out to make a movie. His packed theatre schedule allowed an occasional music video or a corporate ad film. But when his fellow theatre actors asked him to take the lead for a first-time feature film production, he didn't hesitate.
"My theatre friends said they have never had a chance to act in a film. They asked me to write a story and said if I directed the movie, they would all be with me," recalls Ekarshi. "I wrote for them."
It took Ekarshi three months to come up with a script. A 10-minute scene was soon filmed with money borrowed from a neighbour. Malayalam cinematographer Anend C Chandran shot the scene without charging his fee. "We pitched the video to producer Ajith Joy (Mukundan Unni Associates) and he said he was ready to make the film," says Ekarshi, who has never received formal training in filmmaking.
Aattam's ensemble cast has only two actors with experience in movies — Vinay Forrt (Fahadh Faasil-starrer Malik) and Kala Bhavan Shajohn (Drishyam). Shajohn plays the theatre production's lead actor Hari in the film while Forrt is Vinay, the company's former lead actor. Kollam-born Zarin Shihab, who appeared in five episodes of the Amazon Prime Video series The Family Man, is Anjali, the only female actor in the play.
Zarin Shihab, who appeared in five episodes of the Amazon Prime Video series 'The Family Man', is the only female actor in Aattam.
"It was a collective decision to cast a woman in the role of an individual who is seeking justice," says the director. The other 12 actors — all men — represent the society that is demanding its own form of justice. Forrt had acted in several plays with Ekarshi, one of them Karnabharam, a Malayalam adaptation of Kavalam Naraya Panicker's Sanskrit play in which Ekarshi played the role of Bhishma. Shihab was selected from five actors shortlisted (from 100 entries) for an audition with Forrt.
The film was shot mostly in a house in Kolenchery near Kochi during February and March last year. "It was challenging writing for 13 characters who appear throughout the dialogue-intensive film," says Ekarshi, a keen watcher of Iranian director Asghar Farhadi. "I like Farhadi's study of individuals in A Hero, A Separation and The Past," says the director, who made a short film after becoming one of the three Class XI students chosen from his school after a three-day film camp in Kochi in 2006.
Aattam, which was selected for Film Bazaar Recommends last year, followed a rigorous regimen during production. "There was a 35-day rehearsal of all scenes," says Ekarshi. "The actors would come every day in the morning and leave by evening. They were all focussed. We wanted to make sure they all had a good transition from stage to screen. It was tough."
Aattam, which will be screened during the International Film Festival of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram in December, is expected to be released theatrically in January next year.
