Kathanar director Rojin Thomas: Technology will bring 9th-century Kerala to our screens

Anna Mathews

The

Kathanar

team recently released photos of actors hooked up to the virtual production equipment for the fantasy period drama, based on the popular legend of famed 9th century exorcist priest Kadamattathu Kathanar. The preproduction pictures went viral, with many commenting that they looked other-worldly. It was amazing to see Malayalam cinema employ full body scans and the infrared biped motion capture technology pioneered in Hollywood films such as Jungle Book and Lion King.

Speaking about the

VFX

work, director Rojin Thomas says, “Usually an Indian film, with big-time

special effects

, uses a Hollywood technician to supervise the workflow, but we have been thinking why not employ the local talent that has, in fact, worked on major western projects. We have imported the same equipment and technology used in big Hollywood films.” The virtual production and CGI is headed by Senthil and Nathan and Vishnu Raj, with Neil D’Cunha as DoP.

The film, with Jayasurya playing the title character, is a creative and fictionalised version of the Kathanar legend, steeped in the history and culture of the time. “The visual effects are not the highlight of the film; we are using this to tell the story in the most engaging way and to make the script more effective,” explains Rojin.

Writer R Ramanand, who has authored books on the history of Kerala’s rituals, agrees. Giving a hint of his visualisation on the story of the priest who lived in north Ernakulam, Ramanand explains that Kathanar was a “rough and wild character” who had lived among forest dwellers and was “Kerala’s greatest ghost hunter and had bound Kalliyankattu Neeli, perhaps our most vicious yakshi”. “The Kerala of our story is quite different and not one that everyone is very aware of. We are familiar with the legend through the writings of Kottarathil Sankunni, and through earlier films and serials. But this film delves more into — perhaps less-known— traditions of sorcery and occult. And so the task is to recreate this visually rich and beautiful era. And the technological effort being put into this is apt to capture this period.”

Rojin says that for this film, after the scripting, about 70 per cent of the work will be completed before the shoot, with pre-visualisation, concept and visual storyboards and such. “The pictures released on social media were of the process of taking full body scans, in order to design the look and style of dressing. The costume for the action sequences will be of more flexible material than those used for close-ups, for example,” he says.
The film is aimed at a pan-Indian and a global audience. How will a story about an ancient Kerala priest appeal to a wider audience? “What interested me about this telling of the Kathanar story was, in fact, the history, which we will be narrating in an entertaining manner. Kerala was an old port that traded internationally. We will bring aspects such as this into the film to appeal to a global viewership. And only when we do this, can a project on such a massive canvas, be viable for the Malayalam industry,” says Rojin.