The short film starts with a simple disclaimer, quite contrary to what we come across generally. It reads, “If any character mentioned in the movie bears resemblance to any person living or dead, it is purely not coincidental. We remembered them while writing the story.” Mullavallikalkidayil Jaathi Thykal gives its viewers food for thought when it questions the political situations around us.
While the ‘jaathi’ in the title means ‘nutmeg’, it also points towards the caste system ingrained in our society. On how he derived the title for the film, director Arun Sivadas says, “I was a student of the Maharaja’s College during 2013, 14. Back then there was a graffito that inspired me to work on this subject and the title is from those words. It questioned as to who planted the seeds of caste and religion among people.” The movie is a product of a group of film lovers who have studied at the Maharaja’s College.
The short film stars Jino John and Gokul Siva who sit under jasmine vines and discuss a possible story for a short film competition. Their discussion touches political and historical figures, political parties and their principals, as well as the role of religion and caste among all these. “I do not believe anything bad was conveyed through the movie. I tried to get across my point of view on these matters to the public. Despite that, a person contacted me questioning certain portions in the movie where a spiritual figure is mentioned. He said he wanted to move legally. I was expressing my freedom here by interpreting the spiritual figure’s saying in a way I thought to be correct,” he says.
Arun has also penned the script for the short film. “Only four key points were actually scripted. I communicated the concept and the situation to the actors and the dialogues came from them. I believe if they read out the dialogues from the script, they would’ve lacked naturalness.” Arun sheds light on the intention behind his film and says, “Out of all the people who are watching it if at least two are able to understand what we are trying to communicate, then that is our success. There are so many other ways to shoot this particular topic but I felt this is the simplest way to get it across to the crowd.”
