''Shavam: The Corpse'' (

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...

: ശവം) is a

black comedy Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discus ...

Malayalam film Malayalam cinema is an Indian cinema, Indian film industry of Malayalam-language motion pictures. It is based in Kochi, Kerala, India. The films produced in Malayalam cinema are known for their cinematography and story-driven plots. In 1982, ...

released on 28 November 2015. The film is an experimental art film written and directed by

Don Palathara Don Palathara is a film director, screenwriter, and documentary filmmaker from Kerala, India. Known for working on small budgets, his films are expositions of local Kerala culture and study on the human nature. Palathara's films have gained acco ...

, an International Film School Sydney diplomate. The film was shot entirely in black and white.

Background

Shavam is the brainchild of an

Indian Australian all of this entry re immigration is a complete fabrication Indian Australians or Indo-Australians are Australians of Indian ancestry. This includes both those who are Australian by birth, and those born in India or elsewhere in the Indian d ...

who used to be a closely associated member of Kazcha Film Society. Don, an enthusiastic documentarian who had worked previously with Cinemavandi, re-discovered scope of art films from his international perspective. The director reveals that film aspects like the black and white picturization was to give the audience an opportunity to look at different parts of the screen at the same time, and methods such as

color grading Color grading is a post-production process common to filmmaking and video editing of altering the appearance of an image for presentation in different environments on different devices. Various attributes of an image such as contrast, color, s ...

and the morbidity and lifelessness of the title was chosen for aesthetic aspects. The film's protagonist is the subject 'death' which lingers onto the body and slowly liberates the person with the final camera's upshot to heavens without complaints as a mere event. The first preview of the film was conducted by Cochin Film Society at Children's park theatre in

Cochin, India Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) ( the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of Ke ...

. The film featured about forty actors.

Plot

Shavam's plot focuses on the unexpected death of an adult in a middle-class Christian family and the funeral process in home, where neighbors, relatives and friends of the dead person are gathered. The camera movement manipulates the viewer to look through the eyes of a curious unknown who goes around the nooks and corners of the house, and whose presence is equally neglected and acknowledged. The film presents insensitivity and actual prominence of the death and its emptiness reflect in current

malayali The Malayali people () (also spelt Malayalee and also known by the demonym Keralite) are a Dravidian peoples, Dravidian ethnolinguistic group originating from the present-day state of Kerala in India, occupying its southwestern Malabar coast. ...

worldview.

Reception

Media lists the film as an exposition of local culture in a satirical way. The ability of the director's stubbornness to clip-on its viewers to the narrative was well praised. The seminal film of the director has been an official selection to eight international film festivals and won the award for the best foreign film at Barni International Festival, Moscow.

External links

References

{{reflist * Olassa, O.P
"A killer documentation of a funeral"
''

Samayam Times Internet is an Indian internet technology company, based in Gurgaon, which owns, operates and invests in various internet-led products, services and technology. It is the digital arm of the Times Group, the largest media conglomerate in ...

'', Kochi, 28 November 2015 * Express feature
"Shavam far from a lifeless affair"
''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...

'', Thiruvananthapuram, 26 November 2015 * Sreenivasan, Deepth
"Shavam, a funeral in black and white"
''

Deccan Chronicle ''Deccan Chronicle'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper founded by Rajagopal Mudaliar in the 1930s & currently owned by Samagrah Commercial Pvt Limited. It is published in Hyderabad, Telangana, by Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited ( ...

'', Kochi, 28 November 2015 * Special corresponden
"Preview of Shavam on saturday"
''

The New Indian Express ''The New Indian Express'' is an Indian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper published by the Chennai-based Express Publications. It was founded in 1932 as ''The Indian Express'', under the ownership of Chennai-based P. Varadarajulu Naid ...

'', Trivandrum, 27 November 2015 2010s Malayalam-language films 2015 films 2015 black comedy films Indian black comedy films 2015 comedy films