Actor Santhy Balachandran is back in Kochi after a hectic round of film festivals at Neuchatel, Switzerland and London with her film Ennennum(Now and Forever) directed by Shalini Ushadevi. The film won the international critics’ award at the Neuchatel International Fantastic Film Festival (NIFFF) and had its international premiere at the London Indian Film Festival.
Santhy cannot keep the excitement about the response Ennennum garnered in Europe, the conversations it started and, most importantly, having been part of the film. It is an experience, she calls, “as challenging as it was rewarding.” Her eyes lighting up as she talks about Ennennum, her admiration for the director, Shalini Ushadevi, unabashed.
The film, screened first at the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK), 2023, is a layered take questioning at a very simplistic level the notion of ‘eternal love’ and what constitutes ‘forever’ in the context. The questions asked are universal, which explains the resonance at international festivals, Santhy reasons.
“The film explores many things — like the larger implication of a ‘forever love’. It is also a meditation on marriage, love, children…Shalini explores various strands in the film. Even when I read the script for the first time in 2019, I found it very interesting,” she says.
Santhy reminisces how, once she read the script, she desperately wanted the role.
Santhy with director Shalini Ushadevi | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
“Devi’s (her character in the film) arc is interesting; the characterisation is rich in the film. As a director, Shalini knows precisely what she wants from her actors, and extracts that from us,” Santhy says referring to her and co-star, Anoop Mohandas’ work in the film. Anoop plays Devi’s partner Ouso, with whom she embarks on a three-day ‘forever’ experiment. Based on the experiment, the couple has to decide how the idea of forever, without death, sits with them.
Ennennum has been a long time coming, “The film is set in an alternate, dystopian present where technology follows a different trajectory. I have carried Devi with me for five years; four of which I had to wait for the filming to start. Shalini has waited for even longer, since 2011 when she wrote the story.” She calls Shalini a “one woman army” fighting a battle every step of the way to make the film.
Though Santhy came on board in 2019, the film finally got made in 2023. Made on a shoestring budget which had Shalini wear several hats — director, writer, production designer and, of course, producer. Film was shot over two weeks on location in Bengaluru with a cast and crew of 20-odd people. The two week acting workshop helped the actors get into the skin of the characters.
“We shot in a house, Chuzhi, designed by architect Vinu Daniel, in Shoolagiri, Bengaluru, which worked very well for the theme. The architecture is such that it communicates a sense of claustrophobia and the spirals that are part of the design are a perfect representation of time!” she says of the house.
Santhy Balachandran | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Santhy, a post-graduate in Anthropology from Oxford University, made her way to films via theatre as part of a Forplay Society production, The Lover, an adaptation of Harold Pinter’s 1962 classic. Dominic Arun, director of her first film to release, Tharangam, and Prem Shankar, who directed Randuper, both watched the play and she landed her roles almost simultaneously. Until then she had not considered a career as an actor.
Over the years she has been part of Malayalam films such as Jallikkattu, Aaha, Paapum Cheyathavar Kalleriyattey, Chathuram and Djinn. She is one of those actors who straddles arthouse and commercial cinema with equal ease.
She acknowledges her privilege which gives her the luxury to be picky about her projects, “Thankfully, because of the support of my parents, I am in a position to be choosy about the projects I do. If I did not have that, it wouldn’t work.”
The current interest in Malayalam cinema and content, she agrees, give artists the space and the opportunities to collaborate across industries and media. She acted in the Disney+Hotstar release, Gulmohar, which “opened up the horizon as an actor” and the Tamil comedy series on Amazon Prime Video, Sweet Kaaram Coffee, which was dubbed in Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi. “Sweet Kaaram Coffee, for instance, opened up the diaspora audience for me and helped form a connection with them.” Much as she is enjoying working in other industries, she would love to do more work in Malayalam.
Next up for Santhy is Krishand RK’s Malayalam web series, Sambhava Vivaranam Nalarsangham - The Chronicles on the 4.5 Gang. She also worked on the screenplay for a film with her Tharangam director, Dominic Arun. The film will go on the floors in September.
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