Wanted the camera to be a character in my film, says director Senna Hegde on ‘Thinkalazhcha Nischayam’

The camera, by all accounts, is the main character in the critically-acclaimed Malayalam comedy-drama ‘Thinkalazhcha Nishchayam’ (The engagement is on Monday). It stalks the characters over two days, capturing every move of theirs, their strength and frailties, the patriarchism, and the politics.

The sync sound eavesdrops on conversations picking up the sound and fury, the heard and the unheard, and everything in between.

Therein, precisely is the film’s A-game.

Directed by Senna Hegde, and produced by Bengaluru-based Pushkar Films, it revolves around a family in Kanhangad in northern Kerala. At the IFFK last year, it received an overwhelming response. That was just the beginning of the many honours that were on the way.

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Sure enough, it bagged two Kerala State Film Awards for 2021, for Best Second Film and Best Story.

The genesis of the film, which is now streaming on SonyLiv, stems from incidents all too familiar for Hegde and in his part of the world - Kanhangad.

“Lot of situations like this (eloping of a character) has happened quite often,” Hegde recollects.

“It has happened to two or three people I know or I’ve connections with or they have heard of. That’s where the original thought took off. And then it organically grew.”

“As I started writing the initial draft of the screenplay, I decided to place it one house and I explored how can it be simplified. I don’t like too many complications, at least in the making part of it,” he says.

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The film’s cast includes Manoj KU, Unniraj Cheruvathur, Rajesh Madhavan, Ranji Kankol, Sunil Surya, Ajisha Prabhakaran and Anagha Narayanan.

The fresh approach brought in by the cast -- relatively newcomers – with no frills attached is an added delight. Hegde says the cast may be newcomers in front of the camera, but they are all actors. “They have done plays, participated in youth festivals and they have all had theatre experience,” he says.

Clearly, dubbing is not something Hegde is in sync with.

“All my films are always in sync sound,” he said. “When you’re performing, the environment is quite different. I am a believer in getting the dialogues while the actors are performing. That environment is quite different. It could be 12 in the night, you would have struggled throughout the day, you have certain emotions running and the dialogues come naturally. And that is how they are supposed to be delivered,” he said.

“But if you’re going back six months later to an AC room with a cup of coffee and you’re trying to perform that and try to give that voice, that voice doesn’t work out,” he said.

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Sreeraj Ravindran, the director of photography, frames the happenings in the film in a world that seems like one’s own backyard.

“Sreeraj is someone to watch out for,” Hegde says. “We also co-wrote the screenplay. After I finished the draft, I wanted to bring in somebody who could understand it, so that I could go ahead and take the person’s point of view on certain things. I asked him to work on the script once more,” he said.

They consciously decided that they wanted movement. “I didn't want the camera to just stand and stand. I want the camera to be a character of its own,” he said.

Vinod Divakar, the Bengaluru-based executive producer of the film, adds that he never expected the kind of overwhelming feedback the film received. “We thought a few would like it, a few would hate it but never expected this kind of unanimous positive opinion,” he says.

It is very rare that everybody enjoys a movie with a fresh cast, he says. “That came as a surprise.”

Talking about Senna Hegde, Divakar says, “as a writer-director, Senna picks up stories from real life, from real situations which he observes. He has a sharp eye for all these details.”

“Initially he had written the script and we had done pre-production using a totally neutral language but he felt it was not working the way he visualised it. We took a break. Then he took the decision to do the film in Kanhangad in the Kanhangad slang,” he says.

Applauding Hegde and cameraman Sreeraj, he says, “It is almost like the camera is one member of that family. It’s seeing the whole thing unfold.”

Divakar recollects how they never expected the film to go to any film festivals. “We made it as a pure comedy entertainer but such movies are not picked up for any festival. We got lucky, the film got picked up for IFFK and the response was so good that we sent it for state awards. We won a couple of awards there also. Everything has been positive for the film.”

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