Film Review: Are You Listening?

Lately, I have been binge-watching a lot of interviews about the Malayalam movie Moothon. It is written and directed by Geetu Mohandas.  The stellar cast in this movie includes Nivin Pauly, Roshan Mathew, Sanjana Dipu, Shashank Arora, Sobhita Dhulipala, Dileesh Pothan, Sujith Shankar, etc. Anurag Kashyap wrote the Hindi dialogues for this movie. He is also one of the producers of this project. Cinematography of the movie is done by Rajeev Ravi.

Despite being aware of all these interesting aspects of the movie and the rave reviews it received, I still missed watching it in theatres. A terrible, terrible mistake! So while I impatiently wait for the release of the movie on any of the OTT platforms, I decided to watch Geetu’s previous works.

We should always begin at the beginning, right? So I started with her directorial debut, a Malayalam short film named ‘Kelkkunnundo'(Are you listening?), which won recognition at several film festivals and National awards.  The film has been included as a chapter in the 11th standard Kerala state syllabus since 2014.

Kelkkunnundo – Malayalam ShortFilm. Director/ Screenplay: Geetu Mohandas. Running time: 22 minutes. Initial release: November 2019. Cast: Surjith, Jose, Hasna Aslam, Gopalan, James, Sangeetha. Cinematography: Rajeev Ravi. Music director: Sharreth. Awards: National Film Award – Special Jury Award / Special Mention (Non-Feature Film).

I don’t like the idea of spoiling a movie for a possible future audience. So, adding the link to the original short film below. Please feel free to watch the short film first before reading the remaining review.

I’m glad you watched the short film. If not, are you sure you want to proceed reading this? Spoiler alert!

First and foremost, I loved the performance of the child artist Hasna. Minimal but realistic. Her voice was so pure and magical, I felt it added more depth and emotion to the narration. Performances of the two male actors as workers in the garage were also convincing. The only other character that we notice in the short film, other than these three, is the child’s mother.

“Geetu’s writing has many layers. Watching her movie is like reading a novel.” This is a comment I heard from many reviewers about Geetu’s screenplay for Moothon. This observation about her writing holds true for this short film, also.

The story is told from the perspective of the child who is blind. The sounds that she hears, her own sounds and questions that others often ignore, her imagination shown as cartoons, the sad state of life and relationships around her that she hears but we see, all become part of the narrative. Talking to a blind person about colours might sound absurd. But wait until she surprises you by answering “sky is pink and moon blue”.

Geetu believes a writer’s politics should reflect in his/her stories. So what is the politics of this short film? Is it about the rich and the poor? Is it about human greed and selfishness? Is it about unhealthy capitalism? Is it about the unequal distribution of wealth and inequalities in opportunity?

I think the crux lies in the story of the cat and the bee. The cat over-eats and complains about its balloon-like belly, but the bee goes hungry and is heard no more. After all, as the uncle in the garage says, the sky is obviously red now, isn’t it?