Aattam named Best Film at 70th National Film Awards: Anand Ekarshi’s movie, on and off screen, highlights the power of determination

With an intricately crafted screenplay featuring sharp dialogues, a significant portion of Aattam centres on 11 men sitting around and ‘discussing/investigating’ an incident in which a woman from their drama troupe was sexually assaulted while accompanied by the team members. The film meticulously anatomises both male hypocrisy and the multiple layers and greyness in each person at a gradual, real-time pace. However, it’s not these men, but a woman that this technically and narratively spellbinding film places at its core — Anjali — brilliantly portrayed by Zarin. Aattam never fails to maintain its focus on her, a woman with sheer determination, creating one of the most intricately written female characters in recent Malayalam cinema.

One of the most intriguing aspects of Aattam is that debutant director Anand has known 11 of the 13 main actors in the film — excluding Kalabhavan Shajohn and Zarin Shihab — for over 18 years as they have all been part of the theatre group Lokadharmi, including Vinay Forrt. What makes the film’s success even more awe-inspiring is that nearly all of the cast members, aside from their involvement in Lokadharmi, are daily-wage labourers who earn their livelihoods through various jobs. The senior-most in the group, Selvaraj Raghavan VR, was a former headload worker, while Jolly Antony is a tile layer, Aji Thiruvamkulam is a painter, Sudheer Babu is a drama teacher who trains schoolchildren for youth festivals and competitions, Santhosh Piravom owns a vegetable shop and also drives an autorickshaw, Sijin Sijeesh runs a motor winding workshop, Sanosh Murali works as a percussionist at a temple, Prasanth Madhavan is a tour operator and Madhan Babu K is a senior government employee. Actors Vinay and Nandan Unni, along with Anand, have collaborated with these artistes before and share a close bond, which is evident in their on-screen chemistry.

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While all of them harbour cinema aspirations, theatre remains their true passion and they aim to continue their journey, as expressed by the artistes in the documentary “Thespians of Aattam”.

However, the journey till now was no cakewalk for Anand or producer Dr Ajith Joy. During a panel discussion with The Indian Express a few months ago, Anand spoke about the difficulties small films face in finding distributors and getting projects into theatres. “For a smaller film, the biggest challenge is to find a distributor. You will get a producer and actors and eventually complete your film. However, getting it into theatres is the toughest part. We experienced this with Aattam. While it was doing well, a big film arrived and Aattam’s screenings dropped from seven shows a day to one,” he told us.

Team Aattam with Malayalam megastar Mammootty. (Image: Anand/Facebook)

In his review of the movie, The Indian Express’ Anandu Suresh wrote, “There’s no simple way to describe Aattam. It is both a play and a movie. It is also a play within a play within a movie. It is also a courtroom drama, albeit sans a courtroom. However, above all, Aattam stands out as one of the most brilliant Malayalam movies in recent times.”

Rohan Naahar of The Indian Express, in his Post Credits Scene column in March, called Aattam “an early contender for the movie of the year.” He noted, “When was the last time that a movie’s entire premise was revealed to be a red herring? In his astonishing Malayalam drama Aattam, Anand performs a memorable act of misdirection.”