Premiered in the International Competition at the 30th International Film Festival of Kerala, Unnikrishnan Avala’s Thanthapperu (Life of a Phallus) opens by looking back at a dark chapter in history, but it does so without haste. The film settles into its world gradually, allowing its rhythms and spaces to take shape in their own time. It never pushes for attention, and that quiet confidence becomes one of its defining strengths. There is a strong sense of lived time in the images, as if the film has been allowed to grow organically rather than being shaped to a fixed design. The film begins with a prologue set during the Emergency period, when forced sterilisation drives carried out by the state violently disrupted the lives of marginalised communities. Brief but unsettling, this opening establishes a historical wound that continues to echo through the film.
Director: Unnikrishnan Avala
Cast: Bellakkariyan Maneesh, Chincina Bhamini, Poochappara Mani, Jeo Baby
Set among the Cholanaikkan community of Kerala, often described as Asia’s last surviving cave dwellers, Thanthapperu follows Nari Monchan, a young man struggling to live up to the expectations placed on him as a husband, a son and a man. With only a handful of women left in the community, marriage becomes less about companionship and more about possession. Nari has a wife, Bella, but his life with her is ruled by suspicion rather than affection. He fears abandonment so deeply that he ends up pushing her away, clinging to customs that grant him authority while denying her emotional warmth.
What Unnikrishnan gets right, and what makes the film stand apart, is the gaze. This is not a film that exoticises or explains the Cholanaikkans for easy consumption. Instead, their lives unfold naturally through everyday labour, shared laughter, small conflicts and long silences. The forest is not romanticised; it is simply where life happens. Traditions are shown not as rigid monuments but as practices that are followed, questioned and sometimes resisted from within.
Comments are closed.