THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Thriller short films are a rarity in Malayalam. Of the lot, very few succeed to become trend setters. ‘Other Side’, a short film by Jobin Joseph falls in this category. The 14-minute short film that is sure to send chills down your spine, won the award for the Best Short Film (Fiction) at UVAA Virtual Film Festival 2020 (UVFF), which was declared on Tuesday.
UVFF is India’s first online film festival for independent filmmakers and accepts entries from other countries. Jobin is elated about the achievement, especially since it is coming during a tough time when the world is almost in stand still. “It is impossible to conduct a film festival today, considering the pandemic. UVAA is really an inspiring platform,” says the Kozhikode-based filmmaker. He adds that virtual film festivals are quite relevant at a time like this.
The short film narrates the story of Anand Krishnan, a scientist, played by Krishnadas Murali. It focuses on unethical human testing. “Anand is not like your ‘usual’ serial killers. He kills or abducts people and performs tests on them at his secret underground bunker. Eventually, he was caught and put in a mental asylum. But he escapes from there and the storyline builds up from that point,” adds Jobin.
Jobin, who holds a masters in Zoology, asserts that the idea was inspired by ‘Epigenetics’, a subject he studied. “The story is completely fictitious. Though human testing is illegal globally, one can never be too sure. Anand’s aggression and insecurities are a manifestation of the childhood trauma he endured and is not targeted at any specific gender, though one might assume he only attacks women,” says Jobin.
Jobin is also the editor and did the sound effects. His brother Rithin Joseph operated the camera and production was managed by Dr T J Joseph. Jobin has worked as an assistant editor for the movie ‘Manoharam’ by Anvar Sadik. “That experience really helped me with ‘Other Side’. I personally found Manoharam very visually pleasing. I was inspired by it, especially the use of colours,” he says.
The short film was shot at Thrissur. “We were fortunate to wrap the shoot just before the lockdown was declared. We managed to maintain a low budget too, thanks to a friendly crew,” he quips. The biggest challenge for Jobin was to find an artist to play Anand’s character. “Krishnadas has an innocent face which suits the character,” says Jobin. “Unfortunately, I couldn’t work for another film after Manoharam due to the virus outbreak. My dream is to eventually do a feature film, but it’s difficult given the current scenario,” he concludes.