27th IFFK | Sanal Kumar Sasidharan: ‘My films have changed me, they are messages to myself, to purify myself’

Director Sanal Kumar Sasidharan on the sets of 'Vazhakk' (The Quarrel), 2022.

Like all of Sanal Kumar Sasidharan's films, Vazhakk (The Quarrel), which is part of the Malayalam Cinema Today category at the ongoing 27th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK), feels like a psychological trip. At its centre is a man Siddharthan (Tovino Thomas) who, as he drives away into the wilderness, is running away from having to make a decision, to accede to a divorce his wife seeks. In the jungle he meets a feeble Sathi (Kani Kusruti), whose own marital discord shows to him a upended image of his own. If Tovino's superhero act (Minnal Murali, 2021) was greatly applauded, Kusruti won the 2020 Kerala State Award (best actress) for Biriyaani.

With its characters, lost, floundering, grappling in a jungle-like maze of life, set to an immersive cinematography (Chandru Selvaraj) and beguiling background music (Prithvi Chandrasekhar), Vazhakk makes for a gripping watch. In this interview, Sasidharan talks about the making of the film, his works mirroring his life, his equation with film festivals, and the recent case where he was arrested on the accusation of stalking by top Malayalam actor Manju Warrier. Warrier's ex-husband actor Dileep is a key accused in a high-profile abduction, rape and conspiracy case. Edited excerpts:

Tovino Thomas in a still from the film.

In the past, you’ve had run-ins with both the International Film Festival of India and International Film Festival of Kerala; if the 48th IFFI (2017) pulled out S Durga (formerly Sexy Durga), you withdrew Chola from the non-competitive Kaleidoscope section of the 24th IFFK (2019). That year, many Malayalam independent filmmakers were part of a ‘Reform the IFFK’ movement. You seem to have been back at the fest. What's changed at the IFFK?

Many people have a misconception that my protests at IFFK and IFFI were personal. They were not. I was not the first to protest that the then I&B minister (Smriti Irani) interfered with the jury’s decision to select my film S Durga at IFFI. The jury members, including the jury chairman (director Sujoy Ghosh), were the first to protest by filing resignation. My protest and court case was only a moral support for their protest. I still believe it was my duty. In fact, I was the one at a loss. After that incident, not a single film of mine was considered for the National Award or Indian Panorama. Even my critics will not have an opinion that it is due to the lack of quality of my films. Similar was the protest I raised by withdrawing my films S Durga and Chola from IFFK. My stand was against the decision of stuffing commercial movies in the Malayalam Cinema Today (MCT) category and throwing out independent movies with artistic value.

What I did was to create the Kazhcha Independent Film Festival (in 2017), a parallel film festival with the aim of creating a platform for films of artistic value that have been thrown out from IFFK. My films were not even included in the parallel festival. But for some reason the rumours that I was raising protest for personal grievance were accepted widely. In 2019, Kazhcha Festival ended as I quit from Kazhcha Film Forum (formed in 2001). Accepted or not, many of the criticisms raised by the parallel festival have helped the creative growth of IFFK. People who review things objectively will realise this. But the hostility towards me as the person behind the protests has not completely disappeared from the IFFK yet. Though this is not the first time that my film has been screened at IFFK after I boycott the festival. My movie A’hr/Kayattam was also screened in the MCT category (in 2021).

Did you have Thomas and Kusruti in mind when writing the script?

Of course, yes. I first mentioned the thread of Vazhakk to Tovino. I wrote the script thinking of Tovino as Siddharthan. When he agreed to do it, I talked to Kani Kusruti as the female lead.

How did the story come to you? Talk a little about its making.

If you ask me how the stories of my films come to me, I cannot tell you exactly. I don’t see cinema as a medium for telling stories, I start writing from a thought which suddenly comes to my mind, just like when I write a poem. Often, it comes from a personal experience. Sometimes, it takes the form of a story, and sometimes it has an ending that feels incomplete or open-ended. After Kayattam, I was working on a film “Theeyattam”, which was supposed to star Tovino, Manju Warrier and Murali Gopi. The film did not happen. Tovino had blocked his dates to shoot the film by the end of 2020. That’s how I thought of the movie Vazhakk. What provoked me were the personal experiences I was going through at the time and my anticipations of its culmination. The idea was to show a fluid cinematic experience, the flow of mind, without restricting anything to a place, person or story in the narrative. The use of the camera in this film is also fluid.

Kani Kusruti in a still from the film.

Indeed, there are shots where the static landscape moves like water ripples while the waterbody stands still, for instance. Your films have been about movement and mystery, to a destination unknown, and without any redemption for the protagonist. And the camera is the observer, stalker, disruptor at once. How much of that is you and how much comes from your cinematographer?

All the creative decisions in my films come through my own convictions. It doesn’t mean that I don’t give space to anyone else’s opinions. I accept with an open mind all the external interventions, animate or inanimate, that come into the film, not just those from the actors or technicians. But they have to be assimilated into my basic sense of cinema before they merge into the film. Chandru Selvaraj is working with me for the second time (after Kayattam). Ajith Acharya, who was the cameraman for Chola is the one who controlled the helicam in Vazhakk. There was no creative ego between us as they both knew my working style very well. You will notice that all the shots in Vazhakk have a spiral camera movement. This spiral movement goes hand in hand with the aforementioned decision to bring fluidity to the visuals. The age-old Indian philosophy of Maya, that the universe is an illusion is the point of view I've been trying to convey through my work, since my first film. The reflections and wave visual effects of Vazhakk is the result of that thought.

Thomas and Sudev Nair (far right) in a film still.

You don’t explain who Sudev Nair’s character is in the film, except, from his bearing, it appears, he’s some kind of an all-knowing state authority, who appears from nowhere and does something untoward. Is that a critique of how the public invades and destroys the personal?

I’m so glad that you read it right. The question of who Sudev Nair’s character represents was also raised when we applied for the censor certificate. The society around a person, it seems to me, is an indefinable authority that turns an individual’s privacy into a source of curiosity. We may think that the society looks into an individual’s privacy to solve the distortions in his life, but that is not the truth. Exposing harmless personal secrets is mostly for the purpose of gossip and moral judgement. The individual is just a grain of sand on the sea shore or a blade of grass in the lawn, nothing more. Individual secrets are seen as a challenge to society’s authority. The world today is going through a time where all the cries to protect privacy are cancelled in the name of social security. If I were to define Sudev’s character precisely, I would be destroying the possibility of a deeper discussion on the subject.

Your films are social commentaries. This time, does Vazhakk attack the institution of marriage, the futility of marital bliss, or is that a simplistic reading?

I don’t know how completely correct it is to say that my films are commentaries on social issues. They have only ever been read that way. For me, my films are a spiritual journey. Each film has helped me see myself more clearly. A filmmaker does not see films as an outsider sees them. Generally, the audience views movies from the perspective of the hero/heroine. But the creator sees the film as a whole. He is in every character of the film, which to him is a mirror. My films have changed me a lot as a person. That change is not superficial, I haven’t made any changes for social acceptance. Apart from a few awards, I haven't received much acceptance from society. It's a fact that if you look in the mirror, you will change. In Vazhakk also I’m there, in every character. Just as there’s an ocean in a drop of the ocean, there’s the society, in and through me, in my film. Although Vazhakk is peripherally about marriage, quarrels in marriage, and divorce, I believe those viewers who watch the film seriously will understand that it is not so.

Since you say your characters are a reflection of you, how much of this film is autobiographical and the critical lens turned inwards?

I feel that all stories without the writer’s soul are fake. You cannot honestly tell someone else’s story by looking at them. You can only say what you see, what you think and what you understand. You just need the vocabulary, not the courage, to tell someone else’s story. But you need courage and yearning to tell your own soul's stories. Our society doesn't like to look at itself, everyone likes to believe that all that’s evil in the stories is about someone other than the writer and all the good is a reflection of the writer, who is to be blamed or praised accordingly. My aim is to precisely recognise this hypocrisy, there are very few writers who claim that what they write is the darkness and light of their own lives. I have no qualms in saying that my films contain me. My films are messages to myself. My goal is to purify myself, I seek no thrill in self-glorification. Maybe someone else can also relate to my story. Maybe they will benefit from it, too.

Will Vazhakk drop on an OTT or have a theatrical release? What’s next in the pipeline?

A lot many strings are being pulled to prevent my films from releasing. Such efforts began with S Durga. That’s why none of my films have reached the masses yet. When I see many artistic films reaching people through OTT and theatres, I hope that people will also watch my films, but it doesn’t happen because, I feel, there is a definite lobby against my films. A false case — a false complaint filed by Manju Warrier (who acted in and produced Kayattam) — has been registered against me on the conspiracy of some mafia-linked police officers with baseless allegations. The FIR of that case alone is proof that it is a false case. The police have not taken the investigation forward because the conspiracy behind the case will come to light. Warrier is not ready to tell the truth for selfish interests. In these circumstances, I have decided that I will not do films until my innocence is proven.

The protagonist (Tovino’s Siddharthan) trying to escape one situation and landing in a more ominous one, of going into restricted places and situations which doesn’t concern him, even if the intention is to just help, seems eerily similar to your own life. In your own words, you were concerned, and had feelings, for Warrier, but you persisted and involved the state, too, and recently landed yourself in jail for a day, on the accusation of stalking. Don’t you think as a #MeToo ally you defeated the purpose of the movement by persuading someone against her wish? Are there any regrets?

It was months after Vazhakk’s completion that I expressed my conviction that Warrier’s life was in danger and some angry mafia-connected people framed me in a false case with the help of some corrupt cops. But like you said, there’s an amazing parallel between the events of the film and the events that happened later in my life. The police did not conduct any inquiry about my social media post, nor did they record my statement in that regard. Instead, they registered a case against me that I wooed and harassed Manju Warrier. There were attempts made to abduct me secretly. After I posted about it on social media, they tried to release me on station bail. I had to spend a night in the station lock-up because I insisted on being taken to court. The incident proved to me that the Kerala police force was being misused for mafia purposes.

All the points I raised regarding Manju Warrier were factual. It does not make sense to say that I am guilty because there is no investigation into it. I received constant threats that I’d be destroyed if I intervened in the matter and I anticipated that something grave will be slapped on me if I proceeded. But I spoke up because it was immoral to remain silent about the truth.

Sometime ago, actor Parvathy had publicly said that there is a sex racket in the Malayalam film industry. She also said that she did not disclose more because she was afraid for her life. WCC (Women in Cinema Collective), an organisation of women filmmakers, has been constantly demanding that the report of the Justice Hema Committee appointed to study the matter should be released. But the Kerala government is not releasing it just for the purpose of helping some elites with mafia connections.

I still say that the issues I have raised require a thorough investigation. Even the case against me is not investigated because the issues raised by me will come out. All my actions in this matter were correct and purposeful with pure truth. A lot of people know the truth. I have not even a pinch of regret for what I have done and what I had to go through as a consequence. The only sad thing is that not even one person who knows the truth, including Manju Warrier, have opened their mouth. The allegation that I was persuading Warrier against her wish is totally false.