According to Mother Teresa, the most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved. But the morbid reality is that even when they are flocked by their loved ones most human beings are lonely. The sincerity in relationships are dwindling to insignificance while men fall prey to deceit and dishonesty. In such a world lives a man, who has ample material things for him to survive but company. ‘Njan’, the first short film outing of childhood friends Viswanath Harikumar, Vignesh and Ambu dabble with a novel theme, stalking.
“We were a bunch of ardent film lovers who wished to jump into film making ever since our Plus II. So this film is our baby step towards the intimidating world of feature films. Finally when we decided to make a movie we didn’t want to conform to the norms and take a romantic or comedy film. That’s how we finalised on this subject,” says Viswanath.
In his monologues, the protagonist, who has no names other than ‘Njan’, gives a peak into the gritty lifestyle he leads. He says with conviction that there is noone like him. As he has no family or friends, the protagonist follows random men he meets on his way without their knowledge and spends his days watching them from a distance. In the night once he is back in his abode he imagines spending time with the man he met on the streets. Everyday he has long conversations with his muse. Being lonely, he finds his hobby both refreshing and consoling. But one day, a muse finds out that he is being followed and reacts in a rather furious way. Unable to take the rejection, the protagonist breaks down and decides to stop his hobby. While he is out and meandering in the night, he realises with a shock that he is being stalked. He beats the stalker down and finds his mobile phone on the ground. In the mobile he finds various pictures of himself staring at him. Unlike other amateur productions Njan stands out for its brilliant performances, sound quality and effective editing. Rahul Rajagopal does full justice to the principal role.
Many major Hollywood directors such as Christopher Nolan (Following) has dealt with stalking in their movies but for Malayalam short film scene, this could be a unique experience. “One could say we were inspired by Hollywood movies. But ‘Njan’ is something we came up with ourselves,” says Viswanath.
Ambu, who worked in many blockbuster films such as ‘Ustaad Hotel’ and ‘Thattathin Marayathu’ as an Assistant Sound Engineer, has done the editing, music and sound mixing for ‘Njaan’. Akhil Xavier Manuel has cranked the camera. The film is available in YouTube.