Right from the beginning of 2024, Malayalam cinema has been exploring new territories in both form and content. Starting with the National Award-winning Aattam in January, the following months witnessed several successful and bold attempts, including films like Bramayugam, Manjummel Boys, and Gaganachari.
The latest addition to join this bandwagon of innovative endeavours is Footage, the directorial debut of seasoned editor Saiju Sreedharan. This film marks Malayalam cinema’s first mainstream venture into the niche genre of found footage.
Footage opens with the legendary Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez’s line on compartmentalising our lives: “All human beings have three lives: public, private, and secret.” The film follows a vibrant and inquisitive vlogger couple, played by Vishak Nair and Gayathri Ashok, who document almost every aspect of their daily lives, including their intimate moments.
The story spans a year between 2020 and 2021 when the world was grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic. Although it touches on the topic of loneliness caused by the lockdowns and restricted movement, it barely delves into the harsh realities of the time—and rightly so. The entire film, presented as pieces of evidence of a crime, unfolds through the couple’s camera footage. While the first hour is shown from the boy’s perspective, the latter is seen through the girl’s camera.
True to its promotional materials, which indicate that it is intended only for adults, the film’s first shot is an explicit lovemaking scene featuring a random couple that is captured in broad daylight from one of the buildings opposite their residence. This establishes Vishak and Gayathri’s characters as people who would not think twice before invading other people’s privacy. They live on their own terms in a seemingly beautiful love nest of an apartment.
The only apparent poster on their wall is of Kamala Surayya, popularly known by her pen name Madhavikutty, whose unconventional existence starkly contrasted with the times she lived in. The protagonists, who remain unnamed throughout the film, are driven by a relentless curiosity, documenting anything that piques their interest.
In what feels like a homage to The Blair Witch Project (1999), one of the most popular found footage films, the couple also explore urban legends in their leisure time to present their limited YouTube subscribers. Unlike the genre’s convention of incorporating supernatural elements, Footage steers towards a rational narrative refreshingly.
That being said, like many other films in the genre, Footage also stumbles in terms of its writing, as the narrative is told solely from a first-person viewpoint. Even though Saiju and Shabna Mohammed’s screenplay makes an effort to overcome this roadblock by warming up the audience to the lead characters’ idiosyncratic psyche as a couple, the moments showcasing their unconditional love often fall short, due to their stagey tête-a-tête.
Vishak and Gayathri try their best to make the couple believable with their chemistry in the characters’ implicit moments, adorned by the band as we keep searching’s beautifully understated soundtrack. The actors also do a fine job with the voice work, conveying their characters’ tension through gasping breaths as they find themselves in a predicament.
Footage works best during the first hour as the couple begins investigating Manju Warrier’s character, a mysterious doctor possibly scarred by her past, as Gayathri’s character expresses during one of her inorganic and angsty rants against society. The intrigue and tension created by Saiju’s excellent mood-building in these portions exemplify his craft as a filmmaker to look out for.
Shinoz’s cinematography and Nixon George’s sound design also contribute to making Footage a technically sleek film, notwithstanding the inevitable shaky camera movements. Watch out for a brilliantly choreographed fight sequence, shot upside down as a static wide shot inside a forest, right before the interval between Manju and one of the lead actors where the film peaks.
However, the film starts overstaying its welcome in the second hour as we delve deeper into the couple’s lives until they find themselves in this predicament involving Manju’s character. Even at just over two hours, the film ends up feeling stretched beyond its threshold, as the second hour adds little that is creative. The portions involving a housemaid, who works at both Manju’s and the couple’s houses, only contribute to deterring the film’s pace.
Even the conclusion or the payoff surrounding Manju’s character—thankfully not abrupt—lacks imagination, prompting the question, ‘That’s it?’ Despite these shortcomings, Manju, playing a role without a single line of dialogue, does a commendable job employing her eyes alone to express her character’s unstated anger within her limited scope in the narrative. Her agility, too, is a force to be reckoned with.
Movie: Footage
Director: Saiju Sreedharan
Cast: Manju Warrier, Vishak Nair, Gayathri Ashok
Rating : 3/5