Finding his pace: Vishnu Bharathan

Ever since the release of his suspense thriller short film, Vishnu Bharathan is being showered with praise for delivering a feature film like quality. Ira is one of those short films which show the lengths budding filmmakers are willing to travel to. On why he decided to go for a suspense thriller, Vishnu says, “My first short film Avidathe pole ividem was a story-based clean film. Just five minutes long, the film showed the life of an unmarried woman in a village. So when I decided to take a second film, I wanted to push the limits for me as a filmmaker.”

“It was a challenge to take up a story based on investigation. It is quite difficult to show an investigative story through a short film. Finding answers for everything is not easy. I insisted on an investigative story after giving much thought into the technical upgrade that is possible with such a theme.” Vishnu, who also penned the story of Ira, says, “It was not inspired. This is a subject we come across around us. Here the story unravels through the point of view of a police inspector. His two perspectives on a crime — one is personally close to his life and the other is being investigated by him. In both cases, the inspector’s response is passive. However by the end of the film, what he considers to be his failure is changed into something positive.”

As a curious young filmmaker, Vishnu says that when we look at a film and jot down things, it is easy to find its shortcomings. He admits that the slow pace of the movie was deliberate. “The narration moves in a slow pace and that is because I wanted to show that nothing is bound to affect a person who has survived a great tragedy.” Vishnu, who completed his engineering, went onto pursue digital film production. “I’ve just completed the course. I am looking forward to learning more of filmmaking under someone.”