This film, as the author likes to call it, is a fictional documentary. The film is an experiment with the form and aesthetic of what we call a documentary, using a fictional story placed in the village of Pedikulam. The work proceeds to combine audio, video, photographs, sculptures, and other archives to explain the quasi-history of a community and a village.
This work revolves around a made-up ritual called Putthanbali and a family that rigorously followed it until the last century. The story spans decades and generations and is rooted in the cultural and religious history of Keralan society. It blends real-life characters, places, and rituals with fictional counterparts. The film tries to unravel the myths, stories, and rituals through the archives, folklore, religious practices of the community, and testimonials from the current generation. And by doing so, this body of work questions the sense of reality the medium provides.
Buddhism, Docufiction, Kerala, Myth, Ritual
