Queer drama Pixelia lands on Neestream

Indie filmmaker Ratheesh Ravindran’s debut film Pixelia will be available for streaming on Neestream from today. Shot by a small crew on a shoestring budget, the film belongs to the queer genre rarely explored in India. In a statement, Ratheesh shared that Pixelia toys with the idea of fragmentation—in our daily lives, spaces and the times we inhabit, and our real and virtual worlds.

“How do we carry multiple identities and nurture them? How it creates an alter-ego in all of us and conflicts with our search for our true selves. How do we merge ourselves with our multiple identities? One person becomes many stories or rather many interpretations. The film is also about storytelling—how we create and reside in our own stories for our convenience, thereby helping us to balance our existence in our fragmented world.” Scripted by Ratheesh Ravindran, Pixelia is the story of a graphic novelist and a transgender person while combining elements of fictional documentary and real life. The story features a bachelor, Kumar, who quits his corporate job in Kochi to become a graphic novelist. 

He embarks on a new life as an Uber driver in Kochi while working on his graphic novel titled, Pixelia. One day a transgender person named Mandakini gets into his cab, and that day changes his life forever. Sanal Aman, who starred in Sajin Baabu’s Asthamayam Vare (Unto the Dusk) and Mahesh Narayanan’s Malik, essays Kumar. Gowri Savithri and Vijay Menon play the other lead characters. The other cast members are Afeeda KT, Vedh Vishnu, Jayaraj Nair, Azad, Aiswarya Nath, Rashmi Jayagopal, Bibinkuttan, Rajaneesh and Lalitha.

Ranjit Karunakaran and Sharmila Nair produce the film under the banner of RK Entertainments & DocArt Productions in association with Filmocracy Foundation. Sakyadev Chowdhary worked as the director of photography and noted editor Kiran Das jointly cut the film with Rumjhum Banerjee. Saanu Purushothaman handled the sound design while Sreejith Dev took care of the art department. Sharmila Nair worked on the costumes.