Sivaranjini On Victoria: Crafting Anxiety, Intimacy & Feminine Solidarity On Screen |
In a conversation with Aditya Shrikrishna, the filmmaker talks about her debut film and breaks down her kinetic visual style, her casting instincts, and the unlikely beauty-parlour moment that started it all.
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“IF YOU DON'T WRITE your script in two weeks, you are never writing it”, filmmaker Sivaranjini tells me. Having nursed ambitions of becoming a filmmaker since her teenage years, she attended the film and video communications program at the National Institute of Design after completing her engineering. “It was during NID that I could properly learn cinema, making a couple of short films and documentaries there.” She then joined the PhD program at IDC School of Design in IIT Bombay and, during the pandemic, applied for KSFDC’s (Kerala State Film Development Corporation) grant, a journey that has culminated in a celebrated debut film . Malayalam film Victoria is gearing up for release on November 28, following a long, illustrious festival run. After its premiere in the International Film Festival of Kerala in 2024 and with a FIPRESCI prize in hand, the film travelled to places like Shanghai, Adelaide and Seoul, picking up awards along the way. On the script remark, she clarifies that revisions can happen, but it helps if at least the first draft is done in two weeks, a deadline set by the KSFDC funding and mentoring program for women filmmakers. After her initial one-liner, she was among the fifteen selected. With her treatment note, Sivaranjini was among the top five, after which they were given two weeks to write the script. Stream the latest Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada releases, with OTTplay Premium's Power Play monthly pack, for only Rs 149. |
That one-liner came from a beauty parlour. “In 2018, I went to the parlour in my hometown and saw a rooster there. A friend named Victoria, who had an interfaith marriage, worked there, and that was the inspiration to write this script”. In Victoria, the eponymous beautician played masterfully by Meenakshi Jayan finds herself guarding a rooster meant for the local church even as she must manage the parlour alone for a day. Through a series of long shots, we learn about her current predicaments — romantic and familial — and, along with her customers, witness the building blocks of feminine solidarity. Victoria is kinetic and arresting, its mood brimming with anxiety as the protagonist’s life comes apart in front of us before it gradually sews itself together. Sivaranjini was sure that long tracking shots were the way to go. “While writing itself, I was sure the first shot, the song and the facial scene were going to be long takes. About one month before the shoot, cinematographer Anand Ravi, my art director Abdul Khader and the sound team — we all had a lot of jamming sessions as part of the preproduction. All these decisions happened then, our art director made small sets and miniature characters, and we mapped the movements and shots with those.” Victoria is marked by precise blocking and framing as well as camera movements. Decisions on placement of mirrors and if a door had to be sliding came out of ideations like these. |
But the actual filming came with its own challenges as she recounts. A lot of spontaneous decisions had to be made during the shoot. We wanted to incorporate the dolly track in many shots, but because it made a weird noise, the sync sound had a problem with it. Many changes happened beyond our initial ideas, so we had to choose our battles, but I had a strong and supportive team.” According to Sivaranjini, the tracking shots helped the actors. “The actors were fairly new, and the uninterrupted shots helped them settle into a rhythm. With a single location, it might have been tedious for them to give the same gestures if we had gone for a conventional medium, close-up and shot reverse shot.” But it did mean that the actors had to be at the top of their game. And Victoria has one of the finest ensembles in recent times, beginning with the lead Meenakshi Jayan. “We did an open audition call, and I needed people from the Aluva to Chalakudy regions for that particular dialect, which is where I am from”, Sivaranjini said. They received many audition tapes and skimmed through them all. Meenakshi was not from the region that Sivaranjini wanted, but her passion bowled the filmmaker over. A week before the audition, Meenakshi got Sivaranjini’s number and said she was coming over to Angamaly and asked if they could meet. “She actually came to Angamaly and spoke to a lot of shopkeepers, she went to the market. She made a lot of effort. I felt like this girl is really putting in the work, and I must give her a chance”. They had the auditions later and were set. “I was very impressed with Meenakshi, Sreeshma Chandran, and except for Jolly Chirayath, they were all relatively new. And Darshana chechi is a close family friend who was in my first short film, so I wanted her to play the parlour owner.” |
The formal aesthetics of Victoria are daring and ambitious, going a long way in making the film as effective as it is. It manages to translate the character’s inner turmoil to the audience almost effortlessly. “While scripting itself, I was thinking of the mood. It comes from a very personal experience. I was going through an anxiety episode myself, and I wanted the panic attack on screen to feel real.” Lighting was key in making this possible. “We discussed this a lot. Whenever she was going through an emotional breakdown, the scene had to be low-lit. There is even a power cut that we bring to make this possible.” Sivaranjini’s research is also in hybrid cinema, and this helped. “How to bring respect and distance to my characters is something I always think about. If they don’t want us to see them crying on screen, then what can you do? These questions directly informed our formal decisions.” |
Victoria did lose out on an international world premiere with its IFFK selection last year, but that didn’t stop the film from travelling around the world in the last year. “I had sent only to a few festivals before IFFK. But after the FIPRESCI award, I wanted the film to travel. Shanghai was a real surprise, especially considering everyone told me that since our world premiere is done, no festival will take it.” In Shanghai, Meenakshi Jayan won the Best Actress award under the Asian New Talent Competition, and in the Seoul International Women’s Film Festival, Victoria received the Excellence Award. Now Sivaranjini and Victoria return to Kerala with a theatrical release on Friday. Watch the latest Malayalam films such as Avihitham, Lokah: Chapter 1 - Chandra, Hridayapoorvam, and more on OTTplay Premium. Get JioHotstar, Zee5, Sonyliv, Fancode and 25+ OTTs for only Rs 149 per month |
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