“I think people are perverts. It’s the foundation of my career.” I’m quoting filmmaker David Fincher. Every movie of his has been an exploration of the innermost recesses of the human thoughts, the extent of depravity, and the fantasies that lie on totally different ends of the emotional spectrum. Voyeurism, the truth is, has been the inspiration of each filmmaker’s profession, hasn’t it?
After all, all of us peek into the “realities” of various “flesh and blood” human beings that exist in a complete totally different realm made utterly out of movie grain, digits and pixels. Or they exist within the cells of their creator itself, typically failing to materialise on paper or display screen. Filmmakers like Fincher (“Se7en”, “Mindhunter”) solely introduced consideration to human beings’ capability for appearing out their unhealthy impulses, holding a mirror simply lengthy sufficient to make them squirm of their seats.
With his new movie, “Masthishka Maranam: The Frankenbiting of Simon’s Memories”, Krishand is doing the identical factor. The solely distinction is, not like Fincher, he’ll make you snigger continuous whereas making you uncomfortable. By “uncomfortable”, I don’t apply a destructive connotation. I imply, in case your sexual fantasies aren’t dangerous sufficient, and offered you aren’t appearing them out — and don’t ever intend to sooner or later — this movie isn’t going to catapult your blood stress to stratospheric ranges. Don’t fear. One of the funniest movies I’ve seen this yr, “Masthishka Maranam,” reveals which you can make an international-level science fiction movie in India with a restricted funds if you happen to’re good sufficient to make use of your assets.
Of course, I wager that is Krishand’s most costly movie but — the colourful colors, convincing and immersive vfx and manufacturing design are all proof of it — however when in comparison with the biggies, that is nonetheless an indie-level effort, however one that appears like a big-scale epic due to, properly, the aforementioned causes.
The idea is just not new, in fact. James Cameron first explored the thought of tapping into different individuals’s recollections in his story therapy within the disturbing 1995 thriller “Strange Days”, directed by Kathryn Bigelow. In Krishand’s cyberpunk satire, characters dwelling in 2046 Kochi (Kerala) try to plug right into a digital actuality machine to flee their traumatic recollections. For comfort, I’ll confer with the actors’ names as a substitute of the characters. So, there’s Niranj Maniyanpilla Raju because the protagonist who occurs to be a grieving father.
But since this can be a Krishand movie, scenes of brooding characters are nearly nil. This is just not “Minority Report” — you recognize, that glorious Tom Cruise-Steven Spielberg sci-fi movie the place the previous retains taking part in digital recordsdata of his lifeless youngster. No, the protagonist of Krishand’s movie, regardless of attempting to entry what are mainly stolen recollections of lifeless individuals — mainly, what they noticed proper earlier than their deaths — to distract himself from grief.
Long story brief, Niranj finally ends up speaking to any individual who leads him to any individual else who then leads him to this… thrilling… digital actuality system that’s meant to present him kicks of the sexual selection. However, there’s an issue: this fantasy includes the mind-intruding “clip,” modelled after an actual particular person, a “most desirable” superstar performed by Rajisha Vijayan. He went in for one factor, now he’s coping with a few murders. But since they occur inside this “alternate” actuality, does he actually have to fret? Or, wait a minute, is he actually within the reminiscence of 1 particular person, or any individual else’s? Or, is it truly a shared reminiscence?
Basically, everybody, together with one or two girls (if reminiscence serves me proper), is simping for Rajisha.
Well, there’s extra, but it surely’s higher to expertise every thing on the display screen as a substitute of studying about it. Yeah, that is the sort of movie which packs in a number of issues, however in a fashion accessible to all age teams. I’d say “Masthishka Maranam” got here out on the proper time. I imply, on this age the place some individuals are already saying that they get extra pleasure out of AI-generated pictures than porn, Krishand’s movie tackles a extra excessive model of this concept in such a manner that you simply start to consider that this… what he’s displaying within the movie… may very properly be the precise actuality twenty years later.
Krishand explores a mess of matters and humour drawn from Indian popular culture, starting from ridiculous superstar worship — as an example, an actress with a temple named after her, with an idol modelled after her; an idol that actually begins breaking, piece by piece, the minute somebody’s idealised phantasm of her is shattered — to grasping streaming platforms that need to live-stream a court docket case involving her, and cinematic influences that embody Nineteen Eighties Priyadarshan comedies, Japanese anime (“Ghost in the Shell”)… properly, the listing is infinite.
There’s a cause why I selected this headline. What if James Cameron and Priyadarshan went to a bar in Trivandrum? Because Krishand’s creativeness works this fashion. Let me offer you an instance with out ruining the jokes.
We get a courtroom drama within the third act that feels so contemporary and real. It appears like a fantastically shot Daft Punk music video the place the individuals sound like characters from a Nineteen Eighties Priyadarshan basic. The choose prefers everybody to deal with him by his first title — no “sir” or “objection sustained” or any of the other courtroom jargon we’ve heard before in the so-called “cinematic-realistic” authorized dramas.
This state of affairs, as an example, is an ideal showcase for the strengths of not simply Rajisha Vijayan (“Bison”, “Anuraga Karikkin Vellam”) but additionally Divya Prabha (“All We Imagine as Light”, “Ariyippu”). They are required to be a bit of over-the-top, and there’s a rattling good cause for this, which is revealed within the climax. This movie gives these two girls alternatives to show a aspect they haven’t earlier than.
But it’s not simply the ladies; there’s a truckload of gifted actors — starting with the under-utilised Niranj, whose comedian timing eerily remembers his dad within the early Priyadarshan motion pictures — who can be acquainted to those that have seen all of Krishand’s work thus far.
Rahul Rajagopal, as an example, who was the lead in Krishand’s National award-winning “Aavasavyuham”, surprises as soon as once more with one other peculiar character who contributes to the laughs. (You can discover the names of the principal forged under.) All the songs and promos you’ve seen of this movie till now… that’s not what the precise movie is. And there’s additionally a rattling good cause for the lyrics and music of the songs to sound that manner. Krishand has evidently taken a number of issues into consideration to reach at each artistic selection — from the background colors and props to the modifying, other than the costumes and musical decisions.
There’s an alternate model of this film taking part in in my head that options Nikhila Vimal, contemplating how she has a sure picture amongst males and the fixed pestering she has to take care of from low-cost on-line channels named after sure birds. (It’s one of many real-world conditions that Krishand takes a dig at on this movie. I feel she would’ve finished nice on this position, too.)
“Masthishka Maranam” is the quickest of Krishand’s movies thus far. It’s edited in such a manner that it mimics the mindspace of somebody suffering from fragmented recollections. And, in fact, the glitchy, distorted pictures which are sometimes embellished with comedian book-style textual content and artwork, all evoking the way by which we devour media on Instagram and different social media apps. There’s a lot occurring on the display screen at instances that it might sound overwhelming for some; nevertheless, these particulars are additionally peppered all through in a manner that makes the hardcore sci-fi, comedian guide or film lover in us need to relish each element.
“Masthishka Maranam” is a kind of movies that, regardless of not being troublesome to observe, warrants a number of revisits as a result of one viewing is not sufficient to understand each element. That is, in fact, if in case you have a style for the sort of absurd humour it has to supply. It ought to attraction to followers of Lijo Jose Pellissery’s “Double Barrel” (I depend myself amongst them) — nevertheless, this one doesn’t go to the identical excessive size. Hopefully, that must be a reduction. I can’t assure that this is able to work for all.
But then, which movie that has been made thus far in the complete world can declare to please each single Tom, Dick, and Harry? In my guide, Krishand has not upset even as soon as. “Masthishka Maranam” is the primary GREAT movie of 2026 for me — one more testomony to the exquisitely wild creativeness of certainly one of Malayalam cinema’s most promising filmmakers proper now. I hope he continues to get extra and larger alternatives whatever the field workplace reception.
The movie left me with an attention-grabbing thought. If there have been a regulation that forbade everybody on this planet from having sexual fantasies, even the enforcers of this regulation can be in (attractive) jail.
Film: Masthishka Maranam: The Frankenbiting of Simon’s Memories
Director: Krishand
Cast: Rajisha Vijayan, Niranj Maniyanpilla Raju, Jagadish, Zhinz Shan, Nandhu, Suresh Krishna, Divya Prabha, Ann Salim, Jagadish, Shambu, Vishnu Agasthya, Rahul Rajagopal, Manoj Kana, Sreenath Babu, Anoop Mohandas, Santhy Balachandran, Jain Andrews, Sachin Joseph, Sanju Sivram
Rating: 4.5/5
