KOCHI: A film poster titled ‘The Beatles’ but featuring Malayalam actors Mukesh, Jagadish, Siddique and Ashokan. Another labelled ‘Grand Theft Auto Malabar’ with actors Kamal Hassan, Vikram, Mammooty and the late actors Thilakan and Silk Smitha. The poster of ‘Kumbalangi Nights’ juxtaposed with ‘Silence of the Lambs’. A black and white announcement of the Hollywood crime classic ‘The Godfather’ comprising not Al Pacino but late actor N N Pillai, the patriarch of the award-winning Malayalam blockbuster ‘Godfather’.
This is the Instagram page of ‘Aesthetic Kunjamma’. True to its name, the page comprises the amalgamation of West meets East posters with a retro, classic vibe featuring some of our favourite, yesteryear and forgotten heroes. A lockdown project, the page has garnered 46,000 followers in just three months and the team has bagged its first project from the showbiz industry – a poster of the Shane Nigam starrer ‘Veyil’.
The main man of the page, 20-year-old Arun Ajikumar exudes every aspect of cinema. A theatre actor since Class IV with Kochi-based theatre collective ‘Lokadharmi’, Arun’s love and knowledge of movies are phenomenal. The second-year BCom student, armed with a diploma in yoga therapy, has acted in a couple of films, short films and advertisements. “I used to watch a host of foreign cinema when I was younger. However, as I reached Class XII, I realised that Malayalam cinema had brilliant directors with a unique filmmaking style and subjects. This struck something in me -- I wanted to create a page merging both cinemas, thereby providing awareness to many who’re unaware of both, and fuel my fascination for retro visuals,” he explains.
‘Aesthetic Kunjamma’, however, Arun says, is the combined effort of a team without whom the digital collective would not have found its niche among other pages. Joined by photographer, cinematographer and editor Adwaith Krishna, VFX ace and graphic designer Deepak J, content creators Gayathri Menon, Tara Elizabeth and Mydhili Manoj, writer Kiranraj and designers Arun Kumar, Aslam and Shashwath, Arun and his members, surprisingly, haven’t met each other in person.
“We met online and realised that we shared the same vibe, while also having different perspectives for fresh content. Adwaith and I generate ideas, the rest of them, highly talented in their respective fields, convert our concepts into reality. Having more team members also helps in avoiding errors,” says Arun.
While most of their poster designs have gone viral, some of them have struck a chord with the audience, prompting them to contemplate further.
One such is the poster of ‘Kumbalangi Nights’ wherein mouths of the four brothers are covered by moths, taken from ‘Silence of the Lambs’ and the character Baby Mol is trapped in Hannibal Lector’s mask, worn by Shammi. “The moth signifies change -- Kumbalangi Nights is primarily about the transformation where the brothers find purpose in life, from the vagabonds they were. In ‘Silence of the Lambs’, Hannibal controls and manipulates Clarice. In the Malayalam movie, Shammi unleashes a trap of patriarchy around the women in his household,” says Arun.
Netflix’s dramatised biopic on drug lord Pablo Escobar was re-imagined by ‘Aesthetic Kunjamma’ titled ‘Narcos Madras’ featuring actor Rajinikanth. Another poster of the Tamil film ‘Anbe Sivam’ has actors Kamal Hassan as ‘Sivam’ and Tom Hanks’ character in ‘Forrest Gump’. The collective established a connection where Sivam and Forrest had similar battles to fight. Arun’s page also pays homage to the late actor Silk Smitha—one he feels was never given her due or recognised as a good actor.
“Why the name ‘Aesthetic Kunjamma’? “It’s a different take on finding beauty even in the ordinary. Our quirky edits and artistic styles on cinema posters and songs will teach the current generation about the alliance between old-world and current cinema. Older movies have a charm that can never be lost. Our page is an awareness page, not an art one,” Arun affirms. The team is in talks to design the posters of a Tamil web series for Amazon and with a couple of Malayalam filmmakers. “We hope to bring more innovation to the poster design industry,” Arun adds.