Chevittorma (The Soul Whisperer), featuring Dileesh Pothan and Pauly Valsan in the lead, has been selected for the 31st Busan International Film Festival, where it will be screened in the A Window on Asian Cinema section. The film is written and directed by Leo Thaddeus, who has previously helmed films such as Pachamarathanalil, Payyans, Oru Cinemakkaran, Lonappante Mammodisa and Panthrandu.
Chevittorma, the 93-minute Malayalam independent feature, will have its world premiere at the festival, scheduled from October 6 to 15 at the Busan Cinema Center in South Korea. A Window on Asian Cinema is a non-competitive section that showcases new and notable works from filmmakers across Asia.
Set in the hills of Kerala, the film is described as a meditative drama about death, faith, memory and redemption. Dileesh plays Payyammal Varkichan, a powerful landlord whose prolonged vigil at his ancestral home forms the film’s emotional crux. Pauly plays Theresia, a woman known for sitting beside the dying and whispering prayers believed to guide their souls towards a peaceful death.
The film revolves around the meeting between Varkichan and Theresia after she is summoned to his home. As death refuses to arrive, what begins as a ritual vigil gradually turns into an unsettling confrontation with buried memories and unresolved histories. The film also stars George Kora, Parvathy Arun, Srikant Murali and Jeo Baby in prominent roles.
Speaking about the film, Dileesh said, “The Soul Whisperer is a very different experience from the films I have been part of before. Varkichan is a character who exists in a space between life and death, and much of what he carries is unspoken.” On the film’s Busan premiere, he added, “For an independent Malayalam film like this, to find a home at such an important festival is both an honour and an encouragement.”
For Leo, the film was an attempt to explore a more intimate form of storytelling. “The film began with a simple question: what happens when death refuses to arrive, and a family is forced to remain in that moment of waiting? From there, the story became about memory, guilt, faith and the possibility of redemption,” he said. On its selection at Busan, the filmmaker added, “It gives this very intimate story from Kerala an opportunity to travel beyond its geographical and cultural boundaries and connect with audiences in another part of Asia.”
Chevittorma’s technical crew includes cinematographer Swaroop Sobha Sankar, French editor Carlo Francisco Manatad and Iranian composer Milad Movahedi. The film is produced by Lokan Ravi, Jacob Zacharias, Aditya Grover, Harsh Agarwal and Sajan Balan under the banners A Stop Whining Films, Lovely Frames, Uncombed Buddha and S4 Cinema.
The project was earlier presented at the NFDC Co-Production Market, Cannes Co-Production Day and the NFDC Work-in-Progress Lab.
