The story unfolds in a room, more precisely in a doctor’s room. The doctor — a psychiatrist — sits on his chair jotting down what his patient Devayani narrates. What Devayani needs are ears that would listen to her stories from the past. Over the time, a bond develops between the doctor and the patient and they find comfort in each other. Aval Peyar Devayani, the short feature directed by Shanoob Karuvath, looks into the complexities of mind. It is his fourth project after the yet-to-be-released film Second Innings, and short films Murugan Son of Shivan and Idam.
“The entire movie was shot in a single room. Most of the dialogues are in Tamil and English. Only a few Malayalam dialogues are used in it,” says Shanoob, a native of Calicut. He explains, “Devayani meets the psychiatrist to talk about her haunting past. She wants him to help her. Their consultation sessions form the crux of the movie. With each session, they get to know each other better.” Although the story is purely fictional, the director says that he received its thread from a book he had read. “It was the book Many lives, many masters: The true story of a prominent psychiatrist, his young patient, and the past-life therapy that changed both their lives that inspired me to build this plot. I have only taken the doctor-patient sequence from that book. I built this story around that,” says Shanoob, who is planning to screen the film at festivals and later release it via YouTube.
The first preview was held at Act lab in Kochi. Deepa Esther and Srikanth have played the two key roles in the film. “It was indeed a challenging task to shoot the movie as space was narrow. Hence, we focused on the narration part. The story unfolds like peeling off a lemon fruit,” says Shanoob. Before turning into filmmaking, Shanoob was an assistant of Venkat Prabhu. He later moved to Kerala and launched an advertising agency. His first short film Murugan.. has won awards in various categories. “In Murugan.., the lead role was donned by RJ Shaan. Although my first venture was a feature film titled Second Innings, it is yet to come out,” says Shanoob.
