“Malayala, Cinema Today” takes a new turn with the screening of a “surrealist” Malayalam film, “Chitra Suthram”[ Imaged threads] at the Kairali Theatre. The debut movie of a young director, Vipin Vijay, the film can be rightly tagged “extraordinarily unique”.

“Chitra Suthram” is a look at the virtual world and the search for identity that starts with three people- a computer teacher, his black magician grandfather and a cyber- creature- a serious of pre-destined rendezvous, both online and offline, over the shreds of mnemonic time and space, at the cleavage of various parlors of sub-culture- finally narrating the images of the computer screen are drained of the colour and texture, the images collapse to a mere pulsating pixel, potentially to start another cycle of the story once again.

Vinod, a film student at the IFFK is all praise for this earnest attempt of the Malayalam film industry to take a leap to surrealism. “The attempt is highly laudable, yet my question is how many Malayalees can accept this?” he asks. Another delegate, Anita is of the view that “It was a horribly made movie, is it as if the film maker has tried by all means not to cater anything to the audience, to leave them in a perplexed condition”.

The screening had a crowded audience, numerous celebrities and critics watched the first screening of “Chitra Suthram” and obviously this unique treatment would have been a real treat for them, if not for the rest of the crowds!