The ending of Bhoothayanam is a twist that is, well, a twist in the tale. It leaves you with more questions than it answers. The short film, written by Pratheek Thomas of Studio Kokaachi and directed by Tony Davis, is a fresh take on the horror genre minus the signature jumpscares and the score. And that makes Bhoothayanam even creepier, the sense that what happens on reel is very well within the realm of possibility.
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It all began with, what Pratheek calls, a ‘haunting’ photograph of an elderly woman looking out a window. That article and an image that was part of a BBC documentary on the ageing population of Kumbanad, near Thiruvalla, triggered the story. An ageing population living mostly alone in what have become ghost towns with very few young people is a reality in Kerala. The ghost town part, and the loneliness of seniors, fixed the genre — horror. “It is a fact we know very well, that we have a large ageing population which lives alone. That was the starting point for the story,” says Tony.
He discussed the idea with Pratheek, who wrote the story. Tony and Pratheek became friends via a comic library that Tony used to run and his involvement with the comic scene in Kochi.
What started out sometime in 2023 as an idea, became concrete in May 2024 when Tony and Pratheek met over coffee. “That one evening everything was decided, we cracked the story which would be about a elderly woman and her granddaughter!” says Pratheek. The short was to be Tony’s showreel, as part of his portfolio. Tony has assisted Rajesh Pillai on Mili, besides directing a docu-series on Kerala’s comic culture, Katha Vara Kathakal, in 2020-21 which is streaming on YouTube.
A still from ‘Bhoothayanam’
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Special Arrangement
Bhoothayanam is about a family, settled abroad, of three which returns home to Kerala, after the death of the father’s mother. The child, a speech-impaired girl, seeks her grandmother and what happens when she meets her makes up the plot. It is not often that one comes across a main character with a disability in a mainstream film.
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“When I was in NID [National Institute of Design], many of the products I designed were for people with special needs,” explains Pratheek about how he came to write a main character with a disability. The casting of child actor/dancer Vriddhi Vishal is spot on, she makes her job look effortless, especially her comfort with sign language.
They had Vaishnavi, a sign language interpreter as a consultant, who read and vetted the script from the sign language perspective. The Malayalam dialogues are by Tina, co-founder of Studio Kokaachi and Pratheek’s wife.
“Tony was certain about casting Vriddhi, and how she would be perfect for the role…which she went on to prove. She worked very hard on sign language with Vaishnavi; she brought so much energy,” says Pratheek. KPAC Leela was also picked by Tony who was familiar with her work in a Jayaraj film. “She is very picky with her projects, she liked our project and she was on board,”says Tony. Tony is upbeat about the casting, which, he says, worked very well.
Although it was intended as a show reel for Tony’s work, he did not want any compromise in the craft and making. “He wanted it to be made as a feature film,” Pratheek adds. Although he has been a part of the film industry for almost a decade, Tony says he wanted this film to showcase his work, as his portfolio.
Bhoothayanam is important for Pratheek also because this was one piece of his writing that made him confident, “usually I am underconfident about what I write. But this was different, I felt confident about it. Tina and Tony also liked it.” Rather than the stereotypical elements of a horror film such as the atmospherics, jump scares and background score, they wanted the shocks to come with an element of the creepy and the supernatural. To that end, they succeed. The lack of the ‘elements’ of a horror film makes it scary. Not just that, what one sees [on the surface] may not be what is. The short pivots the premise of a grandmother’s love for her grandchild, but is it as selfless and lofty?
The feedback from the industry has been encouraging. The team wanted the film to garner views organically, which it has been. The film which dropped on YouTube in the first week of December has already garnered more than one lakh views. The ‘biggest’ validation for the team has been the fact that Bhavana Studios released the film on their YouTube channel. “That they published it on their channel is a pat on the back for us,” Pratheek says.
Bhoothayanam is streaming on YouTube on the Bhavana Studios channel
