How the film Bhoothakaalam makes you believe it’s all happening in your head

But the film that truly championed the horror genre through a new style of storytelling and sensational sound-effects was Fazil’s 1993-thriller Manichitrathazhu (remade in Hindi, Bhool Bhulaiyaa in 2007). Starring powerhouses like Shobana, Mohanlal, Suresh Gopi, Nedumudi Venu and Thilakan, the story was set in a haunted mansion where the spirit of a classical dancer comes alive. The film never once showed a ghost and yet it was able to send a chill down the spine. There was another key element to the film that gelled well with the paranormal – mental health. This came at a time when it was rarely discussed in popular discourse.

Nearly three decades later comes Bhoothakaalam, which tells an equally intriguing and baffling story, with terrifying results. It is written and directed by Palakkad-based Rahul Sadasivan, and has been streaming on the OTT platform SonyLIV since January 21.

Revathy and Shane Nigam in Bhoothakaalam

“Bhoothakaalam” means the “past”, but also a “ghost” (bhootham) in Malayalam. At its core is a mother-son relationship which gets frayed as the movie progresses. Revathy plays Asha, a widow and kindergarten school teacher who suffers from clinical depression, and Shane Nigam is Vinu, a pharmacy graduate, who’s unable to find a job. The third member is Asha’s mother, who passes away in her sleep within the first 10 minutes of the film. But not before she breaks the fourth wall, a blink-and-you-miss shot that prepares you for the eeriness that unfolds.

It’s a kind of chamber film, much of which is set within the three rooms and the kitchen of the single-storey rented house, where Asha and Vinu stay. The atmosphere, as Sadasivan testifies, is critical to the mood and the pace of the film. There’s palpable tension between Asha and Vinu; they both feel they are not heard or understood. The setting was ideal for the director to rein in the horror.

“I have always loved the horror genre. So, I was ready to experiment, but how does one tell a ghost story without showing the ghost? Or even if I am showing a ghost, how does it connect with the characters or the context of the film? I wanted to be subtle, not loud, and I knew I could only achieve it through powerful performances in creating that atmosphere,” says Sadasivan.

Bhoothakaalam is Sadasivan’s second film and it comes nearly nine years after his first outing Red Rain which was a sci-fi thriller that took a page out of actual events in 2001 when certain parts of Kerala received red-coloured rain, due to the presence of lichen-forming algae.

Bhoothakaalam stands on firmer ground, with terrific performances by Revathy and Nigam. Seasoned with family drama and psychological thrills, it is an out-and-out horror film, which leaves one with questions, but does not provide answers. Sadasivan didn’t want the film to be just a commentary on mental health. Instead, through the psychological moods of the two principal characters, Asha and Vinu, we glimpse into the paranormal. So much so, one is left wondering, is it happening in their minds?

Sound, or more importantly the lack of it, plays a major role in the film. At no point is it loud or in-your-face. It’s so subtle that it makes one squirm. “When I was writing the script, I wanted the poetic aspect of the tension to come from the absence of something. That can only be achieved through silence,” says Sadasivan.

Born and raised in Palakkad, Sadasivan did his visual communications course from a college in Coimbatore because he wanted to recreate the magic he saw on screen. With a deep interest in computer graphics, since he was good at drawing, he did a postgraduate course in animation from the University of South Wales in 2008. He worked as a sketch artist-animator intern in studios in Kerala, to get access into the film industry. He soon figured that he had to arm himself with the fundamentals of filmmaking. That’s when he went to the London Film Academy. It’s after this that he made his first film in 2013.

“In my growing up years, my father, a huge film buff, would take me to all kinds of films, for James Bond movies and Jurassic Park (1993). I was fascinated by the images on screen. How can we create something like that? Such thoughts were always on my mind,” he says. Bred on a wholesome diet of Western and European films, Sadasivan understands the formula of creating fear. “I thought the best way to present a horror film would be to have a psychological theme to it, which is the premise for Manichitrathazhu (The Ornate Lock). It’s a very powerful formula and I think it worked for a film like Bhoothakaalam, too,” says the 35-year-old.

Among the other films that influenced him, such as Paranormal Activity (2007), The Exorcist (1973), and Japanese horror films, is the Malayalam cult film, Thaniyavarthanam, which explored society’s response to mental health, in the late ’80. “I believe films come from life experiences. The images we show from the everyday is what connects us to the audience. There has to be a quality of realism even though I’m trying to tell a fictional story. In Bhoothakaalam, the turmoil the characters face are incidents I have seen in my own life. They are everywhere. For instance, Vinu faces problems like trying to get out of town and find a job. Even with Asha, if you are dealing with clinical depression, how do you talk to such people and how do others react? I have seen close friends struggle with clinical depression. I have also seen families change when there’s a sick person to look after.”

Bhoothakaalam has been winning rave reviews ever since it released. Among them is filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma, who scared audiences with his films such as Kaun? (1999) and Phoonk (2008), and had first cast Revathy in a horror role, in the Hindi/Telugu bilingual Raat/Raatri (1992). He praised its director and producer for the “ambience”, and the acting by Nigam and the “ultra-versatile” Revathy.

Sadasivan took nearly a year to write the film. “From the beginning, Shane was part of the pre-production process. We sat and wrote a lot, in terms of dialogue delivery and bringing out emotions on screen. It was the same with Revathy; I could imagine them playing these characters in my head,” he says.

For someone who wrote the script first in English and turned to scriptwriter Sreekumar Shreyas for the Malayalam screenplay, dialogues are only a cherry on the top. “I wanted to get the structure first with a proper beginning, a mid-point and a gripping climax. I kept the dialogue minimal.”

He doesn’t mind that the film has been released on an OTT platform. “I am not disappointed. I am overwhelmed by the response that I have got in the past few weeks. The majority of the film is captured through silence and that’s not a good format for theatres. I don’t know how fear can be enjoyed in a collective format. You may not experience the same kind of emotion that you do when you have your earphones plugged in. I’m very happy that it was released on an OTT platform,” he says.

As a young filmmaker, it has been challenging though. “The Malayalam film industry is very competitive. Unless you have a fresh concept, it’s hard to survive. If I am working on another film, I have to start from scratch to form an idea and wait for it to be released. But, with Bhoothakaalam, I had complete support from the cast and crew, especially from my producer Anwar Rasheed, who believed in my idea and trusted me,” he says.