I don't believe in categorising everything: Director Shyamaprasad

Not many knew that Shyamaprasad has made a new film until after the announcement of the 49th Kerala State Film Awards. The acclaimed filmmaker won his fifth state award for Oru Njayarazhcha, his follow-up to last year’s Hey Jude.

“I didn’t deliberately keep everything quiet. I didn’t find the need to do any promotions simply because it’s a film with no star value,” says Shyamaprasad, who chose to cast only newcomers in the film. “It needed an ensemble cast with four characters of equal importance. If a star plays one of them, that would upset the balance. Each character has their own strengths and they all had to be on the same level. Not only that, it has scenes that require honesty and daring which I don’t think established actors would be willing to do it, especially the women. We have explored some unchartered territories through the film.”

Shyamaprasad tells us the film delves into human nature and relationships and is primarily a tale of two upper-class women who are seemingly leading a comfortable life but later find themselves craving for something more. When asked if it’s a female-centric film, he says, “I wouldn’t call it that because I don’t believe in categorising everything with labels. Those are for the reviewers and historians. To think in terms of labels is the most dangerous thing for a filmmaker to do.”

Known for dabbling in subjects that most filmmakers wouldn’t dare to explore, Shyamaprasad loves pushing boundaries and not being concerned about its result. “It is, of course, challenging to write certain scripts today given our social conditions, hypocrisy and all that, but if you’re a concerned human being living in society, you would definitely be reflecting on some of the issues in your film. As an artist or a writer, your basic calling card is your empathy — it is what makes one an artist or writer. And empathy is driven by the need to see equality or everyone getting to exercise their rights.”

However, he is not quite sure about releasing the film theatrically. “For films like this, I think an online platform would be more ideal than a regular theatrical release because it’s something that would only work for a certain section of viewers. We are presently considering that as an option. Anyone who is interested in watching it will definitely seek it out, and that’s our target audience,” says Shyamaprasad.

Oru Njayarazhcha stars Dr. Sateesh Kumar, Murali Chand, Sali Varma, and Megha Thomas in the lead roles.