In a remarkable collaboration among independent filmmakers, Payal Kapadia has joined hands with Jeo Baby to bankroll the project by another fellow indie filmmaker. Kapadia, who won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival in 2024 for her film All We Imagine as Light -- a project that generated Oscars buzz -- will produce Kunjila Mascillamani's Malayalam film Guptam (The Last of Them Plagues). She is joined by director Jeo Baby, best known for his directorial The Great Indian Kitchen, whose Hindi remake, Mrs., was released last year.
The pair will join Richa Chadha and Ali Fazal, whose film Girls Will Be Girls debuted on Amazon Prime Video last year, as well as Kani Kusruti, the lead star in Kapadia's All We Imagine as Light.
The art and the artist
Mascillamani is a writer-director from Calicut renowned for her film Asanghadithar (The Unorganised), featured in Jeo Baby's film anthology Freedom Fight. A lover of the art, her filmmaking journey began in 2007, initially dabbling in short films. She is the recipient of several accolades, including the Laadli Media Award, the Toto Funds the Arts Award, the SAARC Award for the Best Short Film, and the John Abraham Memorial Award for short fiction films.
The synopsis of her upcoming film Guptam (The Last of Them Plagues) reads: When her younger daughter disappears in a graveyard, a single mother is forced to move to a conservative, religious, small town in Keralam, India, where she launches a desperate search for the child. Soon, a series of mysterious and disastrous incidents plague the region, and the townsfolk turn against her, convinced she has brought god's wrath upon them. Now, she must fight to clear her name while coping with grief and struggling to care for her surviving daughter.
Kapadia praised Mascillamani's work, saying that she was struck by her "impeccable craft and strong voice" when she saw Asanghadithar and knew she wanted to produce Guptam after reading the script.
Jeo Baby said he was "floored" when he read the script of Guptam. "Her nuanced portrayal of human relationships and their fragility, while telling the story of a witch-hunt, is extraordinary," he said.
Kusruti mentioned that the script "lingered in her mind for days" and praised the feminist approach of the film. Chadha and Fazal have also expressed their excitement about working with Mascillamani, stating, "We have long admired Kunjila's work for its originality, and we are excited to embark on this journey with her, knowing she will bring depth, nuance, and vulnerability to this deeply personal story."
Guptam (The Last of Them Plagues) will premiere at the CinéV Film Markets in Chandigarh, beginning on March 20.
