Private Project

Sombre Skies

After her mother’s heartbreaking demise, 11 year old Nandhana runs away with the ‘bali pindam’ and disrupts the final mourning day rituals. She puts the entire village on the run as she runs aimlessly, putting on hold her duty of a child on her parent’s death as per the Hindu custom.Her cousin, Amit tries to talk to her, to understand the pain that is eating away inside the kid and help her process this period of grief.

  • Manoj Ajith Panicker
    Director
  • Manoj Ajith Panicker
    Writer
  • Ajith Sukumar Panicker
    Producer
  • Jayasree Ajith
    Producer
  • Kingini Sivani
    Key Cast
    "Nandhana"
  • Manoj Ajith Panicker
    Key Cast
    "Amit"
  • Priya Vinu
    Key Cast
    "Mother"
  • Charlee
    Director of Photography
  • Shan Muhammed
    Assistant Directors
  • Sandesh Salimraj
    Assistant Directors
  • Sound Triado
    Sound Design and Final Mix
  • Achu
    Background Score
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    Mekhavritham
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    10 minutes 20 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    May 19, 2024
  • Production Budget:
    1,440 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    India
  • Country of Filming:
    India
  • Language:
    Malayalam
  • Shooting Format:
    digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Manoj Ajith Panicker

Manoj has been a passionate follower of cinema ever since he got fixated on the sounds of the T-Rex in Jurassic Park and the trembling cup of water, that would later form one of his earliest memories of his life. And since then, Manoj has been looking forward to making his own into the filmmaking industry.

He pursued architecture from the College of Architecture Trivandrum, while studying about film history and movies from around the world on the side. After a few years of working at a dead-end job and collecting the resources he needed, Manoj finally made his debut short film on May 2024, with no prior experience in filmmaking and hopes that this would be the first stepping stone of his career.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Sombre Skies is partly based on a conversation my mother had with one of her friends, two days before she succumbed to cancer. Her words during that phone call and the thought of her only child being alone stayed with me. As someone who has been obssessed with the theme of death ever since the 2004 tsunami, exploring the difficulty journey of grief seemed like the best theme for my first short film.

This story is my way of showing people that children are people are
capable of processing pain like adults, in a country where a lot of
mainstream films often tend to portray them as emotionally immature and numb.

As a huge fan of the 80s Malayalam cinema, which is commonly referred to as the Golden Age of Malayalam Cinema in Kerala, I tried exploring the ways you could deal with emotionally engaging family oriented stories with the visual storytelling approach of art house movies.

This is also an attempt at showing a female protagonist who doesn’t just talk about men and relationships, but also indulge in humane moments of grief and sorrow.