When the ground tremors or sudden landslides change a familiar landscape, life in Kerala’s high ranges can feel fragile. For architect and writer Sreekanth Pangapattu, these disturbances were part of his everyday surroundings in Kanjirappally, often called the ‘Gateway to the high range.’ Those lived experiences have now shaped his first feature film, Bhoothalam, which has been selected as the only Malayalam entry at the 44th Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF).
Sreekanth’s debut draws its story from Kerala’s fragile ecology. The film speaks of the drastic changes happening in the high ranges and how they disrupt the lives of ordinary people. Years of quarry blasting, borewell drilling, and reckless excavation have scarred the land, triggering soil erosion and landslides across the state. In Bhoothalam, this ecological unease becomes the stage on which a family struggles to hold on to their world.
“I have been noticing small tremors and rumbling sounds beneath the ground, wells collapsing, and even water seeping up through tiled floors inside houses where no water source exists. In Kanjirappally, tremors measuring up to 2.1 on the Richter scale were once common. In the beginning, people would panic and rush outside, but over time, they grew accustomed to it. Still, the cracks left in the walls of houses told a different story. And this is not just about one place, it is happening in many parts of Kerala,” he says.
“If we think about moving to safer spaces to escape floods or landslides, the reality is that such spaces no longer exist in Kerala. The Mundakkai disaster itself struck in an area without slopes. Climate change has touched everywhere.”
Writing was always Sreekanth’s first passion. He has published seven collections of short stories, and one of them, Muzhakkam (The Rumbling), written soon after the Mundakkai disaster, imagines the night before such a tragedy occurred. That story eventually inspired Bhoothalam, shaping its theme of people caught between the ground beneath them and the uncertainty above.
The film’s world is both intimate and unsettling. It shows how families carry on in a place where the land itself is restless. Personal struggles sit side by side with the larger grief of living in an environment that offers no guarantees. “This is the story of a man and his family who suddenly find themselves alone in a Bhoothalam,” the director says.
Actor Indrans is doing the lead role, joined by theatre actor N S Thara, Kalabhavan Rahman, Manuraj, Babu Manappally, and Babu Sebastian. Choosing Indrans, Sreekanth explains, was a deliberate decision: “His style and mannerisms matched the role perfectly. At first, he didn’t say anything after hearing the story, but later he asked for the script. Once he read it, he was convinced and agreed to do it. What he brought to the screen was perfect for the character.”
The movie also features Madan Thullan, a ritual dance form that is popular in the region where the story takes place. “The character conveys a warning to the audience. Instead of stating the message directly, we chose to express it through this cultural element: that nature will inevitably strike back at the mistakes made by human beings. We felt this approach would create a greater impact on viewers.”
The film’s technical crew includes cinematography by Nikhil S Praveen, editing by V S Vishal, music by Erik Johnson, sound design by P M Rajesh, and project design by Recksy Rajeev Chacko. The film was completed in August and is now on its festival journey, with VIFF in October as its first major international screening. A theatrical and OTT release is planned after its festival run, likely a year later.
“In most films, the hero and the villain are human beings. But here in this movie, both are nature,” he notes.
Though he runs his own architecture firm, PG Group Designs, Sreekanth says it is his travels and connection with nature that have most influenced his turn to filmmaking. He had earlier worked as an assistant in the production design team of Sabu Cyril and had directed three short films before Bhoothalam.
What he hopes, above all, is that Bhoothalam will prompt viewers to question how they live with nature. “We are destroying natural resources. Nothing is predictable anymore. Nature can change in an instant, and the reason is us. If the film makes people think about being more careful and more nature-friendly, I will feel I have succeeded,” he said.