A Thalassery-set courtroom satire

Asif Ali began this year with the successful Vijay Superum Pournamiyum, and followed up with two remarkable performances in the recently released Uyare and Virus. His upcoming release, Kakshi: Amminipilla, scheduled for release next week, will showcase another noteworthy performance of the actor, assures Dinjith Ayyathan, who is making his directorial debut with the satirical courtroom drama.
Dinjith began his career 19 years ago in VFX and animation, working on 3D cartoons for companies like Nickelodeon and Reliance, before making his foray into feature filmmaking.

“Even though I enjoyed animation, things were getting monotonous. I wanted to make a proper movie. Making that jump was risky but I made it regardless,” says Dinjith, who later shifted to Kochi to build the contacts necessary for making his debut happen. He has previously been part of films such as 1983 and Double Barrel. Dinjith had initially planned to make a football-themed project with Dulquer Salmaan as his debut feature but it didn’t materialise. He later approached Asif with the same but that didn’t work out either. However, he doesn’t regret it. “It was a technically challenging concept — not ideal for doing as one’s first film. In retrospect, I feel that it was a good thing that project didn’t happen,” Dinjith reminisces.

Kakshi: Amminipilla was born out of an encounter with first-time writer Sanilesh Sivan. The story, which is not based on any true incidents, revolves around a newly married couple—Amminipillai (Ahmed Sidhique) and Kanthi (newcomer Fara Shibla)—on the verge of divorce. Asif’s Pradeepan Manjodi is the advocate who decides to take on their case. 

Elaborating further on Asif’s character, Dinjith says, “He believes that this case will be a breakthrough and tries to solve it in his own crooked ways.”

It’s a subject, Dinjith says, that needed to be told today. “We are addressing a serious, socially relevant issue in the film. We still come across parents who decide each and everything for their children without caring for their own interests. When it comes to divorce rates, Kerala ranks highly.”

Given that Asif’s character is also an aspiring politician, it made more sense for the team to place the story in Thalassery. Also, Dinjith happens to be a Thalassery native based in Chennai. 
Quizzed on the use of the Thalassery dialect in the film, Dinjith explains that the team has not tried to keep things too authentic as it might be difficult for some audiences to get. “The dialogues will be easy to understand for any Malayali,” he says.

To lend the film a realistic vibe, Dinjith attended various courtroom sessions for six months to capture the right ambience for the film. The film has been shot by cinematographer Bahul Ramesh. It was Bahul’s work in the short film Grace Villa that caught Dinjith’s attention.

Kakshi: Amminipilla also stars Swathandryam Ardharathriyil-fame Aswathy Manoharan as Asif’s wife; Basil Joseph as Pradeepan’s friend, fellow advocate; Vijayaraghavan as a senior advocate; and Srikant Murali as a judge. 

Produced by Riju Rajan, the film has Sooraj E.S handling the editing and Jakes Bejoy on the background score. Arun Muraleedharan and Samuel Aby have composed the songs.