Malayalam short film ‘Kovarty’ explores romance between a typewriter and the typist

Kovarty by Rohin Raveendran Nair is one among the four films selected for MAMI Mumbai Film Festival’s MAMI Select: Filmed on iPhone

What happens when a typewriter falls in love with the typist? Kovarty, the Malayalam short film, explores this strange relationship.

The short, with Rajisha Vijayan in the lead and directed by Rohin Raveendran Nair, is among the four short films selected for the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival’s MAMI Select: Filmed on iPhone programme. This is the second edition of the programme in collaboration with Apple that showcases short films shot entirely on iPhones. This year one film each was selected from Malayalam, Hindi, Marathi and Tamil and the filmmakers are mentored by established directors. In Rohin’s case it was Lijo Jose Pellissery.

Premiered in Mumbai a few weeks ago, Kovarty is set in Thozhuthilmukku, a village of the 1980s. A typewriter arrives at the sub-registrar’s office, much to the delight of the typist, also a new employee, Daisy (Rajisha), the office staff and the public. She names it Qwerty [stands for the usual layout on English-language typewriter], which eventually becomes Kovarty for others.

Daisy comes to realise that the typewriter is in love with her, a secret that is known only to the wall-mounted pendulum clock. Daisy, who is heart-broken after her lover abandons her, finds happiness in her relationship with the machine. Chacko, the sexton of the village church, who secretly loves Daisy, happens to learn about this, which leads to some serious repercussions.

Kovarty, which beautifully blends love and magical realism, is written by Rohin and Vimal Gopalakrishnan, the co-writer of Mukundan Unni Associates. “Vimal brought this idea and later we developed it into a script. We realised that the story has a great potential for romance and magic realism, especially because we both are huge fans of Marquez [writer Gabriel García Márquez].”

Rohin adds that Lijo has been like “a big pillar of support. He told us that the script was so tight that he hardly had any changes to suggest.” Lijo has also given the voice for the clock.

It was on Lijo’s suggestion that the film, just over 30 minutes long, was shot at Kavalam in Alappuzha district. “We had scouted for locations in Kochi but could not find a spot that was untouched my any kind of construction work. Kavalam was perfect. The building was already there but we changed the interiors.”