Kerala Tourism’s short film ‘Varkala and the Mystery of the Dutch Wreck’  dives into the underwater legends of the coastal town

Varkala and the Mystery of the Dutch Wreck,  directed by filmmaker Abhilash Sudheesh, unspools the mystery of a Colonial-era shipwreck off the Varkala-Anchuthengu coast

Beyond the laidback beaches and spectacular cliff views of the sea, Varkala and its surroundings have a hoary past. It was once a centre of colonial trade for the Dutch East India Company and later, the British-led East India Company.

Kerala Tourism’s latest short film, ‘Varkala and the Mystery of the Dutch Wreck,’ directed by filmmaker Abhilash Sudheesh, unspools the mystery of a Colonial-era shipwreck off the Varkala-Anchuthengu coast.

“The idea for the film came about in the midst of a conversation about the book, Kadalarivukalum Neranubhavangalum, by marine researcher and deep sea diver Robert Panipillai, which I had with ad man Kenney Jacob, who runs the ‘Kerala Tales’ social media handle of Kerala Tourism,” says Abhilash. One chapter of the book, which unfolds the secrets of the seas, is dedicated to the wreck of the Dutch trading ship the Wimmenum, which sank about nine miles off Anchuthengu village, near Varkala, some 250-plus years ago. Robert was arguably the first to document the wreck. 

“Kerala Tourism was keen on making a film about it though the shipwreck is some 48m below sea level and difficult to access even for experienced divers. The filmmaker in me was intrigued enough to dive deep into the challenge of making a film about it. I was inspired by Tintin comics, particularly The Adventures of Tintin: Red Rackham’s Treasure, while creating the film,” says Abhilash, 27, the Thiruvananthapuram-based founder of ad film house 11th Hour Productions.

The seven-and-a-half minute film starts with a young traveller’s (played by actor and singer Anoop Mohandas) trip to Varkala on a quest to find out more about the famous ‘Dutch bell’ of the ancient Sree Janardhana Swamy temple high up on the Varkala cliff, which he had first encountered in his childhood. 

As explained in the film with a short animated reel, there are several stories of how the cast iron bell of the Wimmenum ended up at the temple. One story is about of how the ship once got stuck off the Varkala coast and its captain prayed to the deity to release it from its misery and subsequently donated the bell to the temple when his wish was granted. A second story recounts how local pirates sank the ship and looted its hoard, and yet another refers to how the ship went down in a massive storm. “In reality the bell - which has inscriptions about the ship and its maker - doesn’t hang inside the temple (as is shown in the film) but is stored in a corner of the sanctum sanctorum. Since photography is not allowed inside, the bell was painstakingly replicated in entirety for the film,” explains Abhilash. 

The story of the bell eventually leads our young explorer to Wimmenum’s wreck. “It was challenging from the get go because we had little in the way of historical records to go on,” says Abhilash. For instance, there are no eyewitness accounts of this particular shipwreck. There is only sparse information about the ship at the Dutch national archives in the Netherlands, like how the name, Wimmenum, comes from the name of a coastal village in Holland and that there were 356 crew members on board when it sank, according to Robert’s book.