Frustrating to be reduced to labels like bold and beautiful

Lalanna's Song has a myriad themes — death, microaggressions, religious hatred, women's agency, and more.

- NARAYANI M

Excerpts

How did you unpack the film's world and make profound meaning out of it?

When I first read Megha (Ramaswamy)'s script, my immediate impression was how wacky and surreal the story unfolded. But once we met each other, and did readings, I understood her vision and artistic intent. Her clarity made it easy to trust her and go with the flow. In the world she created, themes like microaggressions and religious hatred — things we see around us in many forms — started to feel deeply personal.

At its core, Lalanna's Song is a horror film that feels both surreal and deeply real. There's also a powerful thread of female friendship between Miriam and Shoby. Yet, mainstream cinema still shies away from exploring such bonds.

There's definitely been a cultural shift when it comes to women's agency. Women are more aware of what they deserve, vocal, and know that they have agency. As for female friendships in cinema, they've long been underrepresented because the world has not woken up to the fact, or they do not want to wake up to the fact that it exists in the world that we live in.

Cinema is a very capitalist industry. It often assumes there's no audience for movies on female friendships or female-led narratives. But that's changing. Films like Lalanna's Song and Backstage are signs of that revival, and it's only going to grow from here.