KOCHI: The transitioning of elderly lives from large family homes, surrounded by family, to retirement homes is showcased in a humorous vein in the short film Stockholm. Written and directed by young filmmaker Murali Krishnan. Released by Netflix India on its YouTube channel recently, Stockholm is the first Malayalam short film funded and published by Netflix.
It was one of the ten selected scripts under the Netflix short film project, Take Ten, which had over 2,000 entries from across the country early this year. The Thiruvananthapuram native turned one of his short stories from his debut book, a collection of Malayalam stories, Soviet Station Kadavu into Stockholm. The 12-minute-54-second short film is centred around a kidnapping.
A senior citizen named Viswanathan, who lives in an elite neighbourhood in town, is kidnapped by three goons. Little do the kidnappers know that the old man leads a life of solitude despite being surrounded by his children and grandchildren who consider him a liability.
The incident occurs during the pandemic period when the goons get trapped at their hideout with Viswanathan and another captive, a boy. The happiness of meeting new faces including that of the goons and the efforts he makes to strike warm conversations with them soon makes Viswanathan find a new ‘home’.
The bond the protagonist forms with his abductors made Murali name the film Stockholm. “Stockholm Syndrome is a form of psychological condition that occurs when hostages develop feelings of trust or affection for their captors. Thus I gave the title Stockholm. The selected finalists were given the topic ‘Home’ and luckily one of my short stories published last year was on the theme. It was shot within four days at the capital city and funded by Netflix with Rs 7 lakh,” says Murali, who is an engineering graduate.
Murali was assisted by Kailash S Bhavan in editing and Anoop V Shylaja as DOP. The background score is by P S Jayhari. The team has used a handmade poster designed by Simi Sadanandan for the film.
Murali is currently busy with the screenplay of an upcoming film, Sthanarthi Sreekuttan, helmed by the director Vinesh Vishwanath.
“I love to explore comedy more. I consciously developed the subject with humour as it would reach the audience more easily,” says Murali. Meanwhile, the protagonist, Viswanathan, is safe in the hands of theatre actor Santhosh Venjaramoodu, who communicated the emotion of a distressed old man. “I am in my 40s and I had to play someone who was twice as old,” says Santhosh.
“I haven’t ever done a character such as this so I was a bit nervous when Murali approached me. But I started observing older people and started getting a hang of their mannerisms. Actually, Viswanathan is a representation of the majority of elders in our society, who are literally abandoned in their old age.
When Viswanathan saw the kidnappers, he was not afraid, rather he was happy to get people to talk to and spend the time that he lacked at his own house. The desperation for companionship made the old man befriend his abductors.” The actors, Kannan Nayar, Sreejith Babu, Anand Manmadan and Rahul Nair play the other important roles in Stockholm.