Fahadh Faasil admits he has reservations about dealing with religion in his films, says Malayalam audience isn’t ready for ‘harsh reality’

Actor Fahadh Faasil said that Malayalam cinema has earned enough goodwill recently to basically get away with the wildest experiments in the next five years. But, he said, the one theme that he himself wouldn’t touch again is religion. Recently seen in the film Aavesham, Fahadh was speaking about his film Trance, a highly stylised film that attempted to expose the industry of religion in the state of Kerala. In an interview with Galatta Plus, the actor said that the film didn’t connect with the masses because audiences in Kerala don’t want to see the ‘harsh reality’ about themselves.

Asked if Trance would work better had it been released now, Fahadh said, “I have my reservations about dealing with religion in Kerala. I don’t think people want to hear the harsh reality, if I may say. They want to be entertained.” Released in 2020, just before the pandemic, Trance was directed by Anwar Rasheed and told the story of an atheist motivational speaker who is hired by a shady company to pose as a pastor.

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Fahadh continued, “Trance lacked the entertainment factor. There was a lot of awareness and things like that, but the entertainment factor was taken away from the film at some point. That’s where we failed. Having said that, a corrected second half of Trance would make a lot of difference. But I wouldn’t touch religion for a while in Kerala.”

Also starring Gautham Vasudev Menon, Dileesh Pothan, Nazriya Nazim, Chemban Vinod Jose, Soubin Shahir, Sreenath Bhasi, Vinayakan and Arjun Ashokan, Trance faced some censorship issues and had to be sent to the revising committee after the CBFC suggested an unreasonable number of cuts. Fahadh is one of the most acclaimed actors of his generation, but he said in the interview that he would prefer people to not take him seriously. Ideally, he said, they should forget that he exists after they step out of the theatre. He has a diverse line-up of films this year, including two major tent-poles – Pushpa 2: The Rule, Vettaiyan – and Maareesan.