Murali Krishnan’s Malayalam short film, ‘Stockholm’, streaming on Netflix India, is a comedy thriller

Murali Krishnan sounds ecstatic over the phone. He is back from Mumbai after the premiere of his short film, Stockholm, one among the 10 shorts selected by Netflix India for its Take Ten competition for new filmmakers.

Stockholm is a comic take on the Stockholm Syndrome. The story is about three goons who kidnap a 60-year-old and a boy, hoping to get a hefty ransom. But their plan misfires and the two end up as a liability for the trio. To add to their woes, a nationwide lockdown is announced because of the pandemic. In the meantime, the captives feel at home with their kidnappers.

Poster of the short film Stockholm designed by Simi Sadanandan
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

The short is based on one of the stories from Murali’s short story collection, Soviet Station Kadavu, released in August 2020. “In January, Netflix had announced a contest to submit a two-minute-film based on the theme ‘My India’. It had to be shot on a mobile phone. I was among the 200 selected from the 2,000-odd entries.” His film, which zoomed in on a person who goes around selling tea on his bicycle, asks if equality is possible in a society where power, money and caste dictate everything.

“Next we had to pitch a one-liner script on the theme ‘Home’. That was followed by online sessions with experts where we had to talk about the mood board, colour palette and other aspects planned for our film. The list got filtered down to 50 and then 20. Once we submitted the script, the final 10 were chosen. We were given a timeframe to shoot the film,” says Murali. A workshop was organised for all the directors and they had interactive sessions with top directors and technicians at various stages.

Murali Krishnan
| Photo Credit: Ashik Babu

Stockholm stands out with its script, dialogues and performances. Through cleverly-executed shots and edits, Murali brings home the humour in a seamless way. The cast has Santosh Venjaramoodu, Anand Manmadhan, Sreejith Babu, Kannan Nayar, Rahul Nair R, Sreenath Babu and Devanand.

Following his passion

Thiruvananthapuram-based Murali is an electrical design engineer, who quit his job in Dubai to follow his passion for cinema. An avid photographer, the 30-year-old got noticed initially for his ‘photo stories’ (concept where a story is narrated through a series of photographs). Some of them went viral, such as the one on Vikraman and Muthu, two thieves from Mayavi, a popular children’s comic strip series, and another on the Malayalam film Manichithrathazhu.

A still from the short film, Stockholm
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

During the lockdown, he switched to writing. That was how he brought out Soviet Station Kadavu, which has 17 stories.

“Then I moved on to short films. My first work, Checkmate, was shot when there were strict lockdown measures. The cast shot their portions from their own homes. It was adjudged runner-up at the Chennai Short Film Festival,” says Murali. His other films, Dho and Pukachil, have no dialogues, “because I couldn’t afford to spend on dubbing.”

Murali admits that humour is integral to his short films. “All of us love to laugh. Also, it is an emotion that easily connects with the audience,” he points out.

Meanwhile, Soviet Station Kadavu, another story from his book, was recently adapted to the stage by Thiruvananthapuram-based Kanal Samskarika Vedi. The play with the same name is based on time travel and has been getting rave reviews. Murali adds that his next book will be a travelogue.

He has co-written the script of upcoming film, Sthanarthi Sreekuttan, directed by debutant Vinesh Viswanath. The film stars Aju Varghese, Johny Antony, Saiju Kurup, and “a bunch of amazing kids.”

Watch Stockholm on Netflix India’s YouTube channel.