Private Project

Krishnastami: the book of dry leaves

'Krishnashtami: the book of dry leaves' (2025) is the first feature lenght still image film/ photography film/ slide show film made in Malayalam language (or most probably in any of the Indian languages).

Based on, Krishnashtami (1958), a poem by Vyloppilli Sreedhara Menon (1911-1985), a master genius of Malayalam literature and one of the prominent Indian poets of the modernist era.

'Krishnashtami: the book of dry leaves' portrays the lives of some 'people of no significance' in the eyes of the powerful, while they are detained in a dubious and illegitimate detention centre. Using the metaphor of dry leaves and storm the present lives and their backstories of the characters are told through the portrayals by Sreedharan in the sketch book called 'Krishnashtami'.

In the outer layer of the film, an omniscient narrator, speaking with us in some undefined future time, who fears to have lost some content of the art work which he was part of invites the listeners to fill the gap in the work caused by the authoritarian censorship and one joins him and the new story develops through the 'complementary' words of both. Though, at the outset, the narrator says that he won't be there to tell the stories when the work of art reaches the spectators, he joins to the new narrator to tell the story based on the remnants of the film in the form of static images available to them.

What is revealed through the telling of the stories is that Sreedharan a man in his forties comes to a detention centre as an inmates and compiles the stories of other people, detained in the abandoned dilapidated building, in 'the book of dry leaves' and presents his own life in the same book for each one to know and enjoy.

An unexpected guest comes, in their collective dream, to the prison on the Krishnashtami day and the inmates along with the guards celebrate it with songs and music. The story ends in a pessimistic note as the inmates of the prison are left to face a tragic fate through which the the forces behind the detention are also revealed.
Themes

Lives in the periphery as a tool in the hands of the power

Representation of peripheral lives in art

Orchestrated cultural conflicts by vested interest for gaing power

Censorship

Poverty, art and artist

Family and art

Role of imagination to overcome harsh realities of life

Divinity and reality

  • Dr. Abhilash Babu
    Director
  • Anil Ambalakkara
    Producer
  • Jeo Baby
    Key Cast
  • Abhijith Chithrakumar
    Key Cast
  • Sushama Anil
    Key Cast
  • Kenshin
    Key Cast
  • Faizal Ananthapuri
    Key Cast
  • Surya S
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Feature
  • Genres:
    Experimental, Feature
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 18 minutes 5 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    August 31, 2025
  • Production Budget:
    2,000,000 INR
  • Country of Origin:
    India
  • Country of Filming:
    India
  • Language:
    Malayalam
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    1:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • Moscow International Film Festival
Director Biography - Dr. Abhilash Babu

Dr. Abhilash Babu has his graduation, post graduation and PhD in English literature, PG Certificate and Diploma in Teaching of English and Diploma in Screenplay and Direction. He has published two anthologies of poems in Malayalam, 'Platoyude Koodu' and 'Karikal Kathanugayikal'. He is also the screenplay writer of the 2017 Malayalam movie Viraagam.

Aalokam: Ranges of Vision (2023), an anthology film with six chapters, is his debut film as director in which five chapters are based on dramatic monologues by Robert Browning. His experimental mockumentary film 'Maayunnu, Maarivarayunnu, Nisvaasangalil...' (Dust Art Redrawn in Respiration) premiered at the 29th IFFK, 2024. Krishnashtami: the book of dry leaves (2025) is his third film which is based on the poem Krishnashtami by Vyloppilli Sreedhara Menon (1911-1985), one of the most prominent Indian poets from Malayalam language. The film is the first feature lenght still image film/ photography film/ slide show film made in Malayalam language (or most probably in any of the Indian languages).

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Director Statement

'Krishnastami: the book of dry leaves' is my third feature film after 'Aalokam: Ranges of Vision' and 'Maayunnu Maarivarayunnu, Nisvaasangalil...' (Duat Art Redrawn in Respiration). Like the first two films, Krishnashtami is also a small budget film produced by Anil Ambalakkara of Ambalakkara Global Films. The crew of the film comprises both experienced ones and new comers. The film completed its shooting in eight days and the complete process of its making took Eight months from January 2025. Krishnastami is the first feature lenght still image film/ photography film/ slide show film made in Malayalam language (or most probably in any of the Indian languages) and it has eight little song pieces in it. The film deala with the lives of people who are insignificant in the eyes of power who are forced to lead the lives of dry leaves in the face of storms. Through the stories of the dry leaves, the present political scenario in which economic and political powers make use of cultural differences among the common people in society for sustaining power is also depicted.