Tremors of a Forewarning

When the ground tremors or sudden landslides change a familiar landscape, life in Kerala's high ranges can feel fragile.

- PARVANA K B

When the ground tremors or sudden landslides change a familiar landscape, life in Kerala's high ranges can feel fragile. For architect and writer Sreekanth Pangapattu, these disturbances were part of his everyday surroundings in Kanjirappally, often called the 'Gateway to the high range.' Those lived experiences have now shaped his first feature film, Bhoothalam, which has been selected as the only Malayalam entry at the 44th Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF).

Sreekanth's debut draws its story from Kerala's fragile ecology. The film speaks of the drastic changes happening in the high ranges and how they disrupt the lives of ordinary people. Years of quarry blasting, borewell drilling, and reckless excavation have scarred the land, triggering soil erosion and landslides across the state. In Bhoothalam, this ecological unease becomes the stage on which a family struggles to hold on to their world.

"I have been noticing small tremors and rumbling sounds beneath the ground, wells collapsing, and even water seeping up through tiled floors in many parts of Kerala," he says.