The lascivious female draped in white, her unswerving attention and enraged urgency, above all, an unrestrained celebration of female sexuality - the desi vampire is an archetype straight from the reels of patriarchy. Releasing her from the innate malevolence and attempting a contemporary interpretation of the myth is what ‘Akam’, Shalini Usha Nair’s debut film does. “The film is basically an exploration of the myth of yakshi, the connotations of the term and its relevance in the modern Malayali scenario,” says Shalini.
Set in contemporary Kerala, the film takes inspiration from ‘Yakshi’, Malayattoor Ramakrishnan’s masterwork. As the title suggests, the film explores the inner realms of its characters - Srini, a young architect and Ragini, his enigmatic spouse. “Srini is the blue eyed boy of his office who lives a life of unchallenged complacency. His life seems to be on a roll and then his face gets distorted in an accident impairing his perfect universe,” she says. Later Sri marries Ragini whom he suspects to be a yakshi.
Though inspired by ‘Yakshi’ Shalini says her film is no out-and-out adaptation. “I read the book five years back. The script evolved over the time and I could sense the apprehension growing deeper at various points of time,” says Shalini who also scripted the film. She stresses that though ‘Akam’ uses the novel as its basic premise and a take-off point, its concerns are entirely different. “In the book the core concern is faith vs science, but the film investigates the dynamics of power within a relationship. It’s primarily a relationship drama, an intimate film shot in a small canvas exploring the intricacies of mindscape” she says.
Shalini says ‘Akam’ was a difficult film to make for a variety of reasons. “The story is multi-layered, analysing the labyrinth of marital bonds. Doing full justice to such a theme is a real challenge,” she says. She adds it was a real task to shoot in sync sound as there is an eternal clamour of construction works in Thiruvanathapuram, the sole location of the film. “We used to ask the workers to stop their work for a while and quickly do the scene. A feature film requires a lot of manpower and our crew was really small. Since the character played by Fahad Fazil has a distorted face, putting prosthetics was another time consuming affair. But Pattanam Rasheed, who did the make-up, was extremely supportive,” she says.
Shalini says the film involves scenes that required immense artistic and emotional investment. “The film cuts through a serious subject which calls for a lot of concentration. Fahad had to act with his face bundled up in layers of prosthetics and Anumol’s character also demands intense involvement. I feel they both really went the distance,” she says.
Shalini says her film doesn’t methodically develop an argument to foreground feminist aesthetics. “It’s not that I mind the tag but I don’t want the audience to watch it with such a bias,” she says.
