Rajisha Vijayan: I was flabbergasted when Krishand first told me the story of ‘Masthishka Maranam’

Rajisha Vijayan shares her transformative experience playing Frida Soman in the thought-provoking sci-fi satire 'Masthishka Maranam.'

The courtroom scene in Krishand’s based-in-the-future flick Masthishka Maranam - A Frankenbiting of Simon’s Memories, where Frida Soman unleashes a monologue on how women celebrities are perceived/consumed, questioning the public’s appetite for morsels of their lives, is especially thought-provoking. It was also one of those scenes from the film, which made Rajisha Vijayan, Frida in the film, wonder if the audience would think it was too much. “But you need to trust your director and move forward,” says Rajisha over the phone.

She says she was “flabbergasted” by the idea when she heard the story. “I was not worried about how we would execute the idea. I felt this was something we should do.”   

Masthishka Maranam delves into the probable shape of technology in the future. In this future, memories are on sale, and some even become games in the VR universe. As in the film, where technology and its use/misuse forms the premise, it features prominently in this conversation with Rajisha. One in which camera-toting paparazzi and their disrespectful invasion of privacy, the absence of machinery to control them and spliced footage from different interviews for out-of-context bytes come up.

The film is a conversation that was needed, she maintains. “Many actors [women] are speaking about it now, but we have been thinking about it. A lot of them told me at the film’s premiere that they felt seen. Somebody has articulated things that they had been wanting to say. When it happens in or is shown in a film, it gives people a voice to use later on. I am not implying that they are saying it now because of our film, but it has given voice to things we have felt. Technology is changing, everyone has a phone and a camera ready to click photographs in whatever angle they please. Some of these cameras can zoom in 26 times! What can we do?” she says. Disturbing iterations of these thoughts feature in Masthishka Maranam. 

Rajisha Vijayan | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Rajisha has been applauded for her over-the-top turn as the high-strung Frida. Krishand had several references for the character, but Rajisha had none. He watched her previous work to ensure that, as Frida, she did not bring in anything she had done before, which, to both Krishand’s and her credit, she did not. “It was about channelling who Frida was, while ensuring that nobody figures her out. There is an ambiguity to her character that I felt should lead to empathy for her, but not criminalise her although we know what she has done.”