Srinidhi’s influences: Greek tragedy, Kannada folk music

Directed by Srinidhi Bengaluru, 'Blink' cleverly blends Indian stories with science fiction and the story of Oedipus to deliver a nail biting suspense thriller.

A recent Kannada sci-fi flick, ‘Blink’, has made the Kannada film industry sit up and take notice of its brilliant writing and skilled treatment of the story. The film is packed with multiple elements, from Greek drama and time travel to Kannada folk music. Directed by Srinidhi Bengaluru, it cleverly blends Indian stories with science fiction and the story of Oedipus to deliver a nail biting suspense thriller.

“People assume sci-fi films are about an old scientist or outer space, but I wanted to bring sci-fi and local culture together,” said Srinidhi in a conversation with Showtime. He was keen on making time travel seem realistic. Inspired by the tale of Oedipus Rex, he felt compelled to retell the story of Oedipus against the backdrop of time travel. “Films like ‘Predestination’, ‘Primer’ and ‘Ranganayaki’ influenced me to make ‘Blink’,” he added. 

Srinidhi completed the research for the film in six months. “Altaf Pasha, a Fulbright scholar in Physics from Rice University, Houston helped me with researching relativity and time. I also watched films, read about them, and tried to understand them by breaking down the narratives,” he added. 

Kannada literature has had a deep impact on him, he revealed. He counts writers like Poornachandra Tejaswi and Shivaram Karanth among his influences. But it was also his love for old Kannada films that led him to bring in that drama in his narrative. Srinidhi took one-and-a-half months to write the story and develop it into a screenplay. 

On adapting ‘Oedipus Rex’

Srinidhi, who has been a theatre artiste from the age of nine, believes ‘Oedipus Rex’ is one of the greatest plays ever written. He has adapted the same pattern of storytelling in his writing. “What has to be revealed to the audience and when, what needs to be hidden to create a mystery were some of the things I used in my narrative,” he said. “‘Oedipus Rex’ is narrated through king Oedipus — only what is revealed to him is revealed to the audience. This method of narration intrigued me,” he added. When Oedipus finds out about his patricide and incest, he gouges out his own eyes. “This is the reason to use eyes as a very important aspect in the film,” said the 25-year-old director. 

Influence of Kannada literature and folk music

In Shivaram Karanth’s ‘Bettada Jeeva’, a young freedom fighter who is lost in the jungle, chances upon a house in the forest. He stays with the occupants for about two days and gets deeply attached to them. “I found it intriguing — how a random stranger can become closely acquainted with somebody. In today’s time, this may not be possible but 25 years ago, it was. That’s how I fleshed out Arivu’s character,” Srinidhi admitted. 

Talking about the use of folk songs in the film, Srinidhi says he wanted to use them as a contrast to the message that was being conveyed on the screen. The film is about a mother and son. “‘Adi baa ena kanda, angaala toledena’ (Play to your heart’s fill, my sweet child, I’ll wash your feet) is a lullaby. I used a lullaby sung by mothers to depict his incestual relationship with his mother, that he is still not aware of,” says Srinidhi.

Srinidhi drew parallels between Indian folk culture and the story of Oedipus. “In our folk culture, there is an abundance of songs about Goddesses cursing villages, people, kings for their past deeds,” he says. Similarly, Oedipus’s story talks about the curse of the Greek God Apollo. “So I wanted to merge the cultures and experiment with the result,” he explains. The usage of folk songs was an afterthought. It occurred to him during the editing stage, he revealed. 

Theatre to cinema

The producer of the film, Ravichandra A J, deserves equal credit for not just financing the film but also learning distribution methods when no distributor came forward to release the film. Srinidhi and Ravichandra were a part of the same theatre troupe, Aneka. During the lockdown, when Srinidhi wrote about the Malayalam experimental film, ‘C U Soon’ on his WhatsApp status, Ravichandra discussed with him the lack of experimental films in Kannada. And they soon collaborated to make ‘Blink’, Srinidhi recalled. 

Dheekshith Shetty who was also a part of Aneka was very supportive and agreed to do the film immediately after the narration of the script, said Srinidhi.

The team took three years to make the film.

The team was initially apprehensive about the prospects of the film. They did not have a budget for promotions. The story was considered too sensitive for the Kannada audience and didn’t receive support from production houses because of the subject it dealt with, explains Srinidhi. He was appalled to learn a story written about 2,000 years ago was considered sensitive in this age and day. “It could be problematic if the narrative were used in an insensitive manner. But that is not what we did,” he said. 

‘Blink’ has now received extensive acclaim from the Kannada industry and audiences. The film has entered the second week of its theatrical run.