Presenting horror on the big screen is something that more and more Kannada filmmakers seem to be relishing of late.

    The latest Sandalwood venture in the eerie genre, ‘Yashogathe’, does well to blend fiction and reality to present an edge-of-the-seat thriller.

Conceptualised and made by a young team, ‘Yashogathe,’ which is written and directed by Vinod J Raj, traces the life of a family.

   It captures the details of how the family survives the pre-Independence epoch, only to be trapped in a maelstrom of paranormal phenomena.

   Talking about how he got the idea to make the film, Vinod explains, “The idea struck me in 2006 when I was doing research on extrasensory perception for some documentary work. During our travel, we met an old woman called Triveni in Kuppam. She said that she was a part of the pre-Independence freedom struggle. Some of the things that she told us were a revelation and I couldn’t rest after that. She inspired me to make the film.”

    Vinod liked the idea and now her inputs have formed the crux of the film.
The story revolves around Triveni, the protagonist in the film, and Narayana, a young boy, who comes to the house to learn music.

   The unusual occurrences begin after the child is allowed to stay in Triveni’s house and learn music.

    The film combines suspense and horror with a pre-Independent India as the backdrop.
“I always enjoyed mixing the concept of science fiction and horror. During our travel, we heard a lot of stories not just from Triveni but from a lot of other people. However, we didn’t get the permission to shoot in the locations we wanted to. I have retained the science fiction element in the story and worked around the suspense to add that eerie
feeling,” he adds.

     Vinod also says that the film is a woman-centric one which does well to portray the strength of a woman and her power to handle any situation with ease. There are also two child actors in the film.

The film is releasing in February.