Nithin Lukose on being inspired by both Adoor Gopalakrishnan and Anurag Kashyap for his debut feature ‘Paka’
The Hindu
Sound designer-turned-filmmaker Nithin Lukose talks about ‘Paka’, which will have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 13
In Nithin Lukose’s Paka (River of Blood), a river becomes witness to a generational feud between two families that invariably results in a bloodbath. Only on a few occasions do we see the inhabitants of Paka refreshing themselves in the river. More often than not, they take a deep dive to retrieve bodies of members belonging to either one of the families. The river hence becomes an unwilling participant in a cycle of violence that dates back to the 1950s in Wayanad, when a sizeable population migrated from South Kerala and moved North. Stories of the river swallowing its own people was nothing new to Nithin, whose grandmother told him tales and anecdotes of the life migrants lived in Wayanad and how they reformed the place, which was mostly covered by forest until then, and survived what was a struggle of land, wealth and class. The river that we see in Paka is based on the Orappu river, a branch of the Kabini river, situated just two kilometres from Nithin’s house. Growing up in Wayanad, Nithin distinctly remembers watching Jose, a seasoned elderly swimmer taking a dive into the river to retrieve a body. The river was more known for its history — of bodies being dumped in a sack.More Related News