brief journey into animal-life in Kummatty,
Balu who withdrawas from the world into
Esthapan
Fiction at the Heart of the Real
C.S.Venkiteswaran
In Esthappan, Aravindan creates a spatio-temporal fluidity that
allows for multiple perspectives and visions to merge and emerge,
and to take new forms and trajectories. It is a world where past,
present and future, here, there and beyond, mine, yours and
ours, personal, social and oceanic, land, sky and sea, experience,
memory and dream – all connect and coalesce seamlessly.
In Aravindan films, one often comes
across characters who are ‘out of place
and time’. They are touched by the divine,
lured by the Beyond, inspired by dreams,
or fired by ideals. They yearn to go beyond
the present and seek the non- or yet-to-
be present, or something transcendental
30 ഒക്ടോബര്‍ 2021 .....................................................................................................................................
Esthapan (Malayalam variant of the
name Stephen or Stephanos) begins with a
himself in Pokkuveyil, and even the adulterous sense of awe and wonder that emanates from
Sankaran in Chidambaram, are all touched imagination, remembrance and storytelling.
(or sometimes stricken) by something from “What a sight it was!” These are the first
beyond or non-ordinary. It could be a political uttered words in the film, where the fishermen
ideal or spiritual path (Uttarayanam and talk about Esthapan sitting in the beach and
Pokkuveyil), connection with something from mending their nets. The whole film in a way,
outside (Thampu), an invitation or journey is an elaboration of this statement; about this
into other worlds (Kummatty), or the lure of sense of awe and wonder. At the same time,
forbidden pleasures (Chidambaram). Once it is also about people who weave stories
they answer the call or respond to the Beyond, from the stuff of their lives, livelihoods and
it invariably transports them into other surroundings. In any culture, story-making
domains of experience, and states of being. and telling is one way to confront and
Their oftentimes already fragile connections assimilate the ineffable, the chaotic flow of
with the mundane, and conflicts with the life, time and experience; to resist randomness
banality of everyday, vegetative existence, are and discontinuities, and to seek significance,
transformed by such encouters, and they are or the meaning of life in a sense.
transported or driven to other modes of life
and liberation – it could be political action,
The film is set amongst the Latin Catholic
fisherfolk in Karithura, a coastal village in
spiritual enquiry, artistic expression, or even Kollam and the characters played in the film
the oblivion of insanity. Esthapan belongs to are from the locality and the community. The
the same lineage; he is a wandering minstrel presence of the boundless sea that provides
who lives simultaneously in this world and the livelihood – source of nourishment as well
other, here and there, in the profane and the as dangers and uncertainties - constitute the
sacred. Even while being the most ordinary physical as well as the larger metaphysical
among men, the web of memories, stories, setting to the story. The religious and spiritual
events, wishes and fantasiesthat people weave life of the community revolve around the
about him illuminates and elevates him into church, the priest, the Sunday Mass and the
(or status quo-defying) in a very political an enigmatic presence, one that doesn’t lend annual festivities. The story too is structured
and ethical sense. For instance, Ravi who itself to the banal logic of the everyday or to like the sea waves, with its ebb and tide
wanders away in Uttarayanam, Rama who conventional spirituality. He is the mystic who of anecdotes, stories, myths, legends and
walks into the Sarayu river in Kancanasita, lives here and now, his, the spiritualism of the beliefswith their eddies and currents; each
the young man who leaves the village with mundane, and evokes the immanent rather story traces certain transient patterns and
the circus troupe in Thampu, the wandering than the transcendental. narrative trajectories that are drawn, erased
spirit Kummatty and Chindan who makes a “What a sight it was!” and redrawn by the succeeding waves. The
.................................................................................................................................. October 2021 31
stuff of stories about Esthapantoo have
the evocative power of the sea, which is at
once inviting and nourishing, ineffable and
mysterious.
The film has a three-part structure – the
first part introduces Esthapan, his milieu and
locality; the second part is about the various
incidents and stories about and around him
and his various acts; and the third part begins
when Esthapan is reported missing. This part
narrates Esthapan’s after-life in the form of
various legends and myths that circulate in the
community. The introductory and concluding
parts are brief and they bracket the main
narrative body.
Esthapan’s life too is shrouded in mystery
like any mythical or spiritual character. More
than facts, it is recounted through mysteries
and enigmas. These stories are riddled with
contradictions and fantasy, and change form,
style and intent according to the teller and the
context of telling. So, in many of the ‘incidents’
that people recount, remember or imagine,
Esthapan appears in different forms and guises
– as a miracle worker, faith healer, saviour of
the poor, someone who can concourse with
ghosts, cross the boundaries between death
and life etc, and also as a thief, trickster,
fraud and impostor. These different and often
contradictory versions about the life and acts
of the man resonate with Biblical lore and
imageries. For instance, many of Esthapan’s
acts reminds one of Christ: his compassion
for the poor and the marginalised, his ability
to walk over water, to heal the sick, to perform
miracles etc
32 ഒക്ടോബര്‍ 2021 .....................................................................................................................................
Part 1 – Esthapan and His Milieu from the waters. He says, it was ‘like the sun The scene cuts back to the fisherfolk
The film begins with the shot of sea waves risen in the west, and a human figure within mending nets, as one among them recall
– the image is soft focus and we see only the it.. as it vanished, it left behind an ethereal another incident at the church. The camera
glint and sparkle of sunlight falling on the light that began to float over the sea.’ The man continues to linger on their hands mending
waves that roll and roar in, foaming at the sitting opposite him rubbishes it saying, it the nets, before the scene shifts to the church
peaks and edges. The sound of the church must be his fantasy or the work of Esthapan, where the Sunday Mass is in progress. It begins
bells resounds in the background. Slowly a who instead of going to sea, is roaming with the frontal shot of the priest offering
blurred image is seen emerging from the blue around like a madman, drawing pictures and prayers at the altar. He begins his speech with
waters; it is the figure of Esthapan carrying singing songs. As he says this, the scene shifts the words, ‘Our Lord Jesus when he lived on
the incense burner in his hands walking to that of Esthapan drawing on the wall with this earth, lived as a labourer’. He quotes from
towards us. The vision of the hazy apparition charcoal, it is the figure of Christ with a child the Old Testament: ‘Thou shalt eat thy bread
emerging from the sea gradually sharpening on his lap and woman standing beside him, as by the sweat of the brow” and speaks about
into a human figure is accompanied by a shift another woman with a child waits near her. As virtuous labour, its virtues and necessity, and
in background score: the resounding sound Esthapan continues drawing, strains of church urges everyone in the parish follow the path of
of the church bells turns into the tinkling music can be heard. It is followed by a series Jesus and to engage wholly and truthfully in
reverberations of little bells. This shift from of shots where Esthapan is drawing Biblical one’s vocation. As the speech progresses, the
haziness to clarity, from the vast sea to the figures on the boats and rocks beside the camera captures the faces of the villagers who
human figure, from the toll of bells to the seausing charcoal. The ‘drawing sequence’ ends have congregated there, intensely listening to
tinkle, all indicate certain kind of movement with three school kids approaching him and the priest’s words. This scene introduces almost
towards individuation from something larger. watching him drawing the figure of an angel all the characters who figure in the film later,
This emergence of an amorphous mass to on a rock. They talk about the figure, and ask like the fisherfolk men, their children, stone
something concrete and recognizable at the Esthapan whether they will pass or fail in their workers, the sex worker, grocer, contractor
visual level, also evoke a transition from the examinations. He gestures towards them all to etc. We also see Esthapan standing in a corner
impersonal to personal, from the abstract to sit near him. When they repeat their question, of the church. The contractor and his friend
concrete. Even when Esthapan walks across he draws three straight lines on the rock and are the only ones who stand outside the hall,
and exits the frame, the camera continues to says, ‘He who knows not three, will not grey chatting to each other rather than lending
linger on the sea waves, foregrounding the even when old’. Then he erases one line, and their ears to the priest’s words.
immense sea that is the source of and witness says, ‘He who knows not two, has neither night As the priest comes out of the church
to everything – human and non-human, nor day’. As the children curiously look on, he after the Mass, he is followed by Esthapan.
time and space, life and death, presence and erases one more line and says, ‘He who knows Asking why he is not going to the sea, the
absence. not One, is good for nothing’. Then he erases priest enquires when he is going settle down
all the lines, and says: ‘He who has nothing, like others, with a house, boat, fishing net and
The shot cuts to the hands of fisherfolk
has neither end nor beginning, neither victory wife. Esthapan replies that he needs only a
mending their netssitting on the beach. The
nor defeat’. Then he looks at the faces of all the regular supply of incense. The priest looks at
scene opens with the words, ‘What a sight it
three kids and smile, as the sound of the sea Esthapan, who looks up towards the sky.
was!’ as one of them describes in awe the sight
waves continue in the background.
we saw just now: that of Esthapan emerging This part introduces the milieu, location
.................................................................................................................................. October 2021 33
and the socio-religious setting, with some
brief glimpses into the life of Esthapan and
the way people look at him. Significantly, it
is only in this scene that Esthapan engages in
a normal dialogue, when he responds to the
priest’s question about settling down. In all
the scenes that follow, he either smiles, looks
away, remains silent or if at all he speaks, it is
always elliptic utterances.
Part 2 – Esthapan’s Acts,
Miracles and Stories
Where Esthapan irritates the rich man and
regales the workers
In the next scene, we see the contractor
arriving in his car to the work site at the beach
to oversee his workers building sea wall. The
workers are carrying huge granite stones to
lay it along the beach. He gets off the car, and
throws a towel over his head to escape the
heat of the sun. As the sound of the heaving
workers continue, Esthapan approaches from
a distance with incense burner in his hands. He
looks at the workers engaged in the hard labour
of carrying huge rocks on their shoulders, and
begins to chant these words: ‘The days – one,
two, three, did they rise and set in vain? Did
the rock melt into water? Or did the rock put on
the costume of water?’ Murmuring these lines
again, he continues: ‘After dumping your waste
on the waters, and if it appears like land, you
are not to blame. And even if it is so, you can
ask, who on earth is blameless?’. Irritated by
Esthapan’s presence and his elliptic words, the
contractor makes a hasty retreat from the site.
As his car drives off, we hear the thelabourers
34 ഒക്ടോബര്‍ 2021 .....................................................................................................................................
laughing loudly; now they are returning disperse saying he will show the right path to constable sees the face of his Chief sitting
from work, standing behind a lorry. As their Esthapan. They leave, accusing the priest of there in full uniform. Startled, he salutes his
laughter and banter about Esthapan’s entry, pandering to frauds like Esthapan. The scene boss and runs away. The shots of the constable
the embarrassment of the contractor and his ends with the priest taking Esthapan inside. running for his life merge with the laughter
sudden retreat continue, it enrages the lorry and scene of the woman and the beedimakerat
driver (Lopez, an employee and henchman of Where Esthapan Appears as Police Chief the shop. Though the constable feebly tries
the contractor). He thinks it is because there Continuing the theme of thieves and affirm his courage and regain his composure,
is no one to show Esthapan his place, and to stealing, the next scene begins with a police the beedimaker warns him to be careful with
substantiate his point, recounts an incident constable walking along the beach, where Esthapan. And as if to substantiate his point,
involving Esthapan when he was caught red- the workers are engaged in hard labour of he then shares an uncanny experience of his
handed. moving the rocks. He arrives at a petty shop own with them.
near the beach run by a woman; there is also
Where Esthapan saves a thief by becoming a beedi maker at work in front. The constable Where Esthapan disappears into the sea and
one walks up to the shop, and tells them about the reappears
It is late in the night and the priest is increasing menace of thieves, all the while In his story he and his friend were
sitting alone reciting Latin prayers. He hears plucking and eating bananas hung there for returning one night after having a few drinks.
someone calling him, and when he comes out, sale. He is talking about the sleepless nights On the way, they see Esthapan near the fort
he sees Lopez the lorry driver and others are of patrolling and his resolution to put an and curious about his movements, decide
standing outside along with Esthapan. They end to the menace of thieves. The woman is to follow him. As they follow him, Esthapan
say, he was caught stealing bananas from the curious to know whether Esthapan too has walks towards the sea and disappears. The
master’s house. Esthapan is standing with his begun to steal. The policeman nods, but the whole night, they wait on the shore for him,
head lowered, and when the priest asks him if beedimaker refutes her by saying Esthapan is but Esthapan is nowhere in sight. At dawn,
what they say is true, he slowly raises his head not of that sort. When she says it was Lopez they hear a strange roar from the sea, and
and looks at the priest. From his look, the scene who told her so, the policeman recounts a when they rush in that direction, they see
cuts to Lopez and the men chasing a thief with strange encounter he had with Esthapan. In Esthapan emerging from the sea with incense
banana bunch on his shoulder along the beach his story, he is patrolling the beach at night burner in his hand. The beedimaker says,
at night. While running for his life, he meets looking for smugglers. We see him walking ‘That light still haunts my eyes’. This scene and
Esthapan who is standing beside a boat. He along the beach, as we hear the voice of shot are the repetition of the opening shot of
pleads with Esthapan to save him. Esthapan Esthapan muttering these words, gazing at the film, where it is not the beedi-maker but
sends him away after taking the bananas the sea waves glimmering in moonlight: ‘One his friend who describes the scene to others
from himand giving him some money. When after the other after another, and even when while mending the nets. This story connects
Lopez and others arrive at the spot, they see one climbs over the other, it remains the same. with the earlier version, and by adding a
Esthapan standing there with the bananas. Those who think they can count, when they prelude makes it all the more believable. But it
They grab him and decide to take him to the lose count, shall want to count no more’. As he is a story that can also be read as the drunken
priest. Now, the scene returns to Esthapan’s repeats these words, the constable approaches men’s fantasy.
detached look, as Lopez and friends urge the from behind and asks him, ‘Who are you,
priest to punish him. The priest asks them to rascal?’. When Esthapan turns around, the
.................................................................................................................................. October 2021 35
Where Esthapan heals the Prostitute’s child
Next scene introduces Anna, the sex
worker in the village. It is early morning and
she along with Lopez gets up from behind
the boats at the beach after a night of sex. He
leaves for the toddy shop promising to pay
her later. Arriving at the shop, he wakes up
his assistant who is sleeping on a table, and
orders toddy. As they drink, Lopez expresses
his displeasure with the prostitute saying she
is now more close to Esthapan who is now her
regular customer. His assistant who considers
Esthapan a blessed man, disagrees with him.
When Lopez jeers at the idea, he agrees with
Lopez that Esthapan did visit Anna, but it was
to heal her sick child. Now, the scene shifts to
Anna’s house where she is sitting with the sick
child on her lap. The doctor examines her child
and says her condition is too bad, and leaves
the rest to god. Helpless and heart-broken,
when Anna looks up. She sees Esthapan
amidst the neighbours who have gathered
there. He comes up and asks her if he can give
it a try. Leaning over the child, he moves his
hand over her body, and the girl sits up, cured.
The scene once again shifts to Lopez and his
assistant walking out of the toddy shop, with
the latter once again rubbishing his assistant’s
story. He counters it by claiming that he was
witness to the event, and then tells his version
of the story.
Where Esthapan is a fake healer
In Lopez’s account, he is present in Anna’s
house when it happens and ut occurs not
during the day, but by late evening. The scene
36 ഒക്ടോബര്‍ 2021 .....................................................................................................................................
cuts back to Anna’s house, where she is sitting some villagers, he recalls his meeting with again, he tells how Esthapan made goodies
with the sick child on her lap; it is dark and Esthapan last night, when he refused to give fall from the sky like manna, and begins to
the sound of dogs and sea waves can be heard Esthapan a place to sleep in front of his shop. recount the story, when the scene shifts to the
in the background. Lopez arrives there and After a heated discussion about what to do actual event. We see Esthapan sitting at the
enquires about her child. He lights a beedi with Esthapan’s body, they untie the knot and foot of the church tower, pensively looking
and sits beside her, when he hears someone lay it on the floor. By then, a police constable up at the figure of crucified Jesus that he has
approaching. It is Esthapan and he is moving arrives on the scene, checks the dead man’s drawn with charcoal on the wall. The noise
in a stealthy and shady manner. He hesitantly breath and declares it as ‘Attempted suicide, of children is heard in the background. The
approaches, and when Lopez questions him, Section 309’. Suddenly, startling the crowd bemused children gather in front of Esthapan
he enquires about the kid’s illness. Then he that has gathered around, Esthapan sits up, who is sitting still and open-eyed, and they go
tries to heal the child by passing his hands saying: ‘What a nuisance! Won’t you even onto heckle him. A quick montage zooms in
over her body, but there is no conviction in allow a man to sleep peacefully?’. From the on to the face of face of crucified figure, and
what he is doing. He does it again and again enacted story the cuts to storytellingscene, then to a close up of Esthapan looking up at
but nothing happens. When Lopez laughs out where the grocery owner is telling the woman Jesus. When the kids continue to jeer, he turns
loud at him, Esthapan scampers away from (servant at the Contractor’s house) and to them and smiles. Egged on by others, the
there. Lopez’s derisive laughter continues as another man sitting in front about the legal woman’s son (the one who tells the story)
the scene cuts back to the present where he complications and nuisance he is forced to throws a pebble at him. Esthapan is startled,
and his assistant get into the lorry and drive undergo due to Esthapan’s mischief. But the and after a moment, he throws it back at the
away. As the lorry moves, Lopez ends his man sitting below calls Esthapan a blessed one kid and it turns into a fried snack. Encouraged
diatribe with the words, ‘guys like him should and is in awe about his miraculous act: that by this, all the kids begin to throw pebbles at
be finished off!’. The theme of death leads to Esthapan could stay hanging for a whole day him, which he hurls back as snacks. The kids
the next episode about Esthapan. and still not die!. When the shop owner scoffs begin to scramble for the goodies scattering
at his admiration, the woman warns him not all around them, when Esthapan suddenly
Where Esthapan resurrects from death to make fun of Esthapan. Then she begins to asks them to stop. The children stop their
From the dismissive words of Lopez and tell her story about Esthapan. scramble while Esthapan sits up, and listens to
the moving lorry, the scene cuts to Esthapan something afar. There is a moment of stillness
who is hanging by the neck from a rope tied Where Esthapan turns pebbles into food and between them. Suddenly, Esthapan gets up
to the roof of the grocery shop. It is a straight saves a girl and begins to run towards the beach, followed
cut from movement (of the lorry) to stasis (the Her story is a retelling of what her son by the children. At this moment, the theme
stiff, hanging body), so, from life to death, and had told her about Esthapan. As she begins music is heard. They all run to the beach
word to act. In other words, it is a jump from the story, the scene cuts to her sitting outside where a little girl is wandering dangerously
a curse (of Lopez) to its effect or enactment. her home washing the vessels, when her close to the sea. Esthapan rushes to her and
When the grocery owner comes to open son comes home with a lot of snacks. When picks her up.
shop, he is shocked to see Esthapan hanging questioned and accused of stealing them, he The scene cuts back to the site of
from the roof of the veranda. He runs away tells her it was Esthapan who gave it to him. storytelling, the grocery shop where the
calling out for help. While returning with But she doesn’t believe him. Questioned owner rubbishes the woman’s story as a
.................................................................................................................................. October 2021 37
child’s fantasy. She says she believes it even
if she has not seen it and offers as proof, the
festive thanks-giving reception that Esthapan
was given at the contractor’s house. (She is a
servant in that house and the girl Esthapan
saved is contractor’s granddaughter). From
the grocer’s shocked face, the scene cuts to
contractor’s house where the servant woman
is watching from above the rescued girl and
her parents happily chatting and strolling with
Esthapan near the house. The contractor is
sitting on the lawn reading, as they approach
and inform him that it was Esthapan who
saved their daughter. Then they all go inside
the house, followed by the hesitant contractor.
They invite Esthapan to the drawing room to sit
on the sofa. A nervous Esthapan sits, gazing at
the wallpaper picture of sunset on the opposite
wall. Contractor’s wife comes and greets him,
as the contractor looks on indifferently. The
girl’s mother (who is a foreigner) brings a
camera and clicks some pictures of Esthapan
and others, which is shown as a series of sepia-
toned still photographs. In the next scene,
it is night and the girl’s parents along with
Esthapan are sitting on the lawn. The couple
formally pours drinks and offers it to him,
when Esthapan picks the bottle and finishes
it off in a gulp. The astounded couple gaze at
him, as he coolly smiles back at them.
This is the only scene where we see
Esthapan in the interior. All the other scenes
he is always seen outside, in the exteriors of
the church, or wandering along the beach or
the village paths. Inside the house, and in its
luxurious surroundings, he is totally uneasy
38 ഒക്ടോബര്‍ 2021 .....................................................................................................................................
and out of place, and totally indifferent to then engage in a ghost dance with the skulls scene shifts to the actual event of Esthapan
the trappings of luxury and comfort. And in and bones in their hands. Esthapan is at the walking along the beach with a gunny sack
the next story, he is seen in a place that is the centre of the dancing circle, and he chants slung over his shoulders. He goes to Anna,
other extreme of the rich house: the cemetery, and cheers them on to a frenzied pace. Here, takes out a bunch of currency notes from
that too, in the company of gravediggers and except for Esthapan, the rest of the group are the sack, and gives it to her, saying, ‘You too
ghosts.' wearing scary masks. As the dance and the shall share the burden I carry’. Then he walks
chant reaches the crescendo, the shot cuts away from there and passes a group of men
Where Esthapan digs graves and dances with back to the drunken and astounded faces of including Lopez playing cards at the beach.
ghosts Paili at the arrack shop, followed by that of all He stops there and gives them all a handful of
From the night party at the contractor’s the other three. notes saying, ‘May an equal share of this go to
house, the scene shifts to the priest’s spartan your houses too’, and leaves them saying, ‘May
dinner at his place. While serving him, his Where Esthapan saves the poor and the source of salt in all eyes be the same’. As
assistant Paili reports that Esthapan is going distributes money to all the card players watch him in awe, Esthapan
astray. Asked to explain, he says that he walks away. It is followed by a series of shots
This scene starts with mud pots crashing
saw Esthapan hanging around the church of all the major characters – the grocer,
on the floor along with other household things.
cemeterylast night. As he says, the scene cuts servant woman, constable, Pailietc – standing
Lopez and his henchmen are evicting Anna,
to Esthapan and a group of men climbing the astonished with a bunch of notes in their
the sex worker, from her hut for not repaying
cemetery wall, stealthily moving inside and folded hands. A montage of shots of currency
contractor’s loan. The eviction continues as
digging one of the graves. Carrying skulls and notes showering from the sky follows after
the neighbours watch the scene helplessly, and
bones in their hands, they jump the wall and which we see Esthapan with the sack walking
despite Anna’s pleas and curses. In despair, she
leave. From this shot, the scene shifts to the towards the sea, and disappearing...
asks if there is no one in this world to save her.
arrack shop where the assistant is drinking Suddenly, Esthapan enters from amidst the
along with others. Lopez and his assistant Part 3 – 'Be at Peace, he will return'
crowd of onlookers. Watching the scene for
enter the shop, and while drinking he tells a few moments, Esthapan says, ‘Here I come’, The concluding part begins with an
Paili that he will teach Esthapan a lesson. and leaves. What happened later unfolds enigmatic sequence that functions as a
Paili dismisses him by saying, he is not grown through the words of a fish vendor, and the transitional or a liminal link between the
enough to do that. Then he tells them about scene shifts to the contractor’s home where living, physical Esthapan, who lived amidst
what he saw at the cemetery last night. The she is selling fish. She expresses her outrage at people and about whom people spun stories,
scene cuts to the same shots of Esthapan and the master’s cruel act (of evicting Anna), even and the Esthapan, who is not physically
friends jumping the wall and digging graves while justifying it by saying Anna deserves present, but continues to exist in legends,
in the previous scene, until they jump the it. The theme of virtuous labour reappears memories and popular lore. The sequence
wall and come out. In his first account to the here, as she is insinuating Anna for her sinful comprises of a series of handheld shots
priest, Esthapan and friends leave quietly with profession compared to the honest labour moving about in different terrains, locations,
the bones, but in this version, the group led that women like her do. She continues the and surfaces. The first shot shows the camera
by Esthapan with the incense burner emerge story by recounting to the contractor’s wife moving beside the stone walls of the fort,
from the cemetery making weird noises, and the miracle that occurred. At this point, the with its worn stone structures and dilapidated
.................................................................................................................................. October 2021 39
exteriors. The sound of sea waves and bells
accompany this sequence. As the handheld,
point of view shot progresses, it enters and
exits dark interiors through certain narrow
openings in the wall. Finally, the camera rises
up over the stone wall and moves towards
the vast sea. At this point, we hear someone
fervently calling out ‘Esthapane..’, in a long
drawn out manner. 1There is a similar magical
visual sequence in Kanhcanasitatoo, where
the camera in a handheld point-of-view shot,
moves along rocky surfaces, entering and
exiting dark interiors on its way. It could be
the movement of a restless soul seeking refuge,
briefly entering and exiting several dark lives,
before finally liberated from narrow, earthly
bonds.
The next shot opens to the tranquil
church compound where the priest is walking
up and down reading the scriptures. Hearing
the church bells toll, the priest crosses himself,
when a villager comes to report that Esthapan
is missing. The priest maintains his calm and
says, ‘Be at peace. He will come back’.
From this moment on, the tone and pace
of the film shifts to a faster and eventful mode.
We see the contractor’s son and wife along
with their friends taking a pleasure trip in the
boat. As the boat cruises along, they drink,
chat and shoot with a video camera. When
they reach a particular point, the boat driver
comes out of the cabin, and pointing towards
a direction, announces that ‘It is here that
Esthapan appears’. He says that whenever the
sea gets stormy and windy, Esthapan comes
40 ഒക്ടോബര്‍ 2021 .....................................................................................................................................
here to warn the fishermen, and the boatmen Esthapan being seen by people in different presence on the altar, the camera tilts up along
cross the cape only if Esthapan says so. At this places at the same time. This sequence in a the crucified figure behind them, to the electric
point we realise that Esthapan is no longer way parallels the first sequence in this part, lights above. From there, the scene cuts to
physically present, and has become a legend where the camera moves along walls, entering the exterior, where onstage, colorfully attired
of sorts. and exiting dark interiors. Here, we see a figures are performing Chavittunatakam2.
row of boats – unmanned, and parked side It is a sword fight scene, with characters
by side along the coast, now at rest after and dressed in glittering and vibrantly coloured
Where Esthapan warns the fishermen going
before long, tenuous journeys into the sea. attires moving rhythmically to the tune of
to sea
They remind us of journeys as well as rest, background music. Watching the play in rapt
Then the boat driver recounts the story movement and stasis. attention are all the characters in the film
about two fishing boats that were nearing sitting in front of the stage. The play ends
Next sequence consists of a series of shots
the cape on a stormy night when Esthapan with the ‘mangalaslokam’ (marking the end
of Esthapan walking alone with his incense
warned them not to cross. As he begins to tell of performance) sung by all the performers
burner in his hands across different planes, sites
the story, the scene cuts to the stormy sea at standing in a row and dancing on the stage. As
and surfaces – near the sea, across the bridge,
night, where two fish boats are wading across it reaches the crescendo, the scene cuts to the
beside the port, the church and Chinese nets,
the turbulent waves. The voice of Esthapan is vast expanse of the sea. Now, the only sound
passing coastal roads, hilly terrains, streets,
heard over the waters: ‘Sail not any further..’. is that of the sea waves. As the camera pans,
etc. In the background is Gregorian chants.
One of the boats decide to go ahead, ignoring we can see the vacant church compound and
What links these varied spaces together is the
Esthapan’s warning (The man in that boat the desolate chavittunatakam stage, all devoid
presence of water and water bodies, and in the
says: ‘It must be Esthapan’s ghost. He won’t of people, action, noise, lights or celebrations.
final shot in the sequence, we see Esthapan
leave us even after he is dead’), while th other As the camera completes the 360 degree pan,
seen moving above water.
boat turns back. From the shot of the boat and comes back to face the sea, we see at the
The image of Esthapan moving above
cruising cross the rising waves, the scene cuts centre of the frame Esthapan lying curled up
water towards the horizon with the resounding
back to the picnickers in the boat and to the on a rock, sleeping peacefully. At that point
Gregorian chants in the background is cut to
storyteller’s voice narrating the story. Now the the camera stops and begins to zoom in on to
picknickers in the boat are silent and serious. annual festival celebrations in the church.
the figure of Esthapan, while the church bells
The boatman ends the story, saying that the The night is agog with the clamour and light
resound in the background..
fishermen who ignored Esthapan’s words of fireworks, electric lamps, coloured lights,
never returned. Upon which the American festoons, music band, church bells and
decorated umbrellas. The procession of the Stories for Stories, Story within Story
woman asks her husband to end the trip and
return. divine figures is taken out, with the priest and The film ends with a chavittunatakam
the villagers accompanying it with lit candles. performance of the play ‘Alfonse’3. It is the final
What comes next is a long sequence where scene of the play where we see the character
The figure of Mother Mary, Infant Jesus and
the camera moves near the shore, parallel Brutus fighting with the King’s soldiers to save
other holy saints and their insignia are taken
to the boats of different types, names and his brother Alfonse, who is hanged to death,
into the church, where the priest and his
colours parked one next to the other. As the but in the end rises from the dead. (It is not
assistant recite prayers. From their frontal
shot progresses, a voice over continues about a Biblical story but one about a King named
.................................................................................................................................. October 2021 41
Pillon, his minister Alfonse and his brother
Brutus, and princess Brigith) 4. This play about
characters - heroic historical or fictional (or
both)- engaged in epic conflicts and moments
of crisis who live on in popular memory in the
form of stories and legends that are performed
and reenacted. This performance of a play at
the end of the film, in many ways encapsulate
the theme of the film. It is the coming to life of
an imaginary world, of a story (or actual events
retold through generations, remembered,
written down and performed) enacted as
entertainment, prayer and sacrament; it is also
always a retelling, reinterpretation every time
it is told and performed, and a collective act of
reception and remembrance. Through them,
the audience in the present connect with
their own mythical roots, and come to terms
with life now. The story of Esthapan and its
narration through many such retellings in the
film too is one such act of imagination.
This is how Aravindan describes the
narrative structure: “The film begins with the
shot of Estheppan coming from the sea. This
is a story being told by the fishermen making
their nets beginning with “Oh what an unusual
brightness there is. It is like the sun has risen
from the sea itself...” When this story ends
another one begins... “It doesn’t matter, let us
find what exactly happened at the Church” and
so one story begins and merges into another.
It is not the type of story with a beginning,
progression and end. In our tradition this is
called ‘ShakhaChamkramanam’.”
People tell, remember and enact such
42 ഒക്ടോബര്‍ 2021 .....................................................................................................................................
stories for various reasons – to make ethical trickster and a fraud. While some characters to have transcended his physical presence.
sense of the chaotic world one lives in by describe Esthapan’s exploits and miracles, Likewise, the Sunday Mass speech refers to
narrativizing it, or to come to terms with others contest it; while some want to put him the story of Christ and extols the virtues of
one’s own life, conditions or actions. In the in his place and finish him off, others consider good life, and the play at the end is a story, an
film, everyone ‘narrates’ and creates stories, him blessed and place him on a pedestal. ethical lesson, performed and enacted for the
as a pastime and as an act of remembrance, Stories take off from another one, sometimes villagers. The Biblical story at the beginning
sometimes out of guilt or envy, or to vent their embellishing it with further details, or refuting and the story of the play at the end also act as
anger; most often they project themselves – it with another version. a template for the Esthapan story that unfolds
their dreams, fantasies, anxieties and hope Aravindan creates a spatio-temporal in the film. The Mass and the play also present
– onto someone else, in this case, Esthapan. fluidity that allows for such multiple the characters/villagers who appear in the
In the process they connect with the flow perspectives and visions to merge and emerge, film, in the first instance listening to a text
of life and try to make life bearable and and to take new forms and trajectories. It is the Testaments, being spoken out for them,
comprehensible. More than dialogues per se, a world where past, present and future, here, and in the second, watching a reenactment
most of what characters utter in the film are there and beyond, mine, yours and ours, or performance of a play/story. This journey
in the form of storytelling – right from the personal, social and oceanic, land, sky and sea, from the Testaments, through performed
speech by the priest who speaks from the altar experience, memory and dream – all connect stories to the stories they tell/believe about
about the story of Christ, every other character and coalesce seamlessly. Esthapan – is seamless, with the one merging
who talks or remembers something about into and feeding the other..
The narrative of Esthapan is bracketed
Esthapan does it as if they are telling a story. So, in this narrative world, things happen
between two sets of images/events, one
Especially so, in the case of the beedimaker, or events are joined together not according
concerning the person and character of
the constable and Paily, where their style, tone to the rules of rational or instrumental logic
Esthapan, the other about the larger spiritual
and expression explicitly evoke the storytelling but through associations and affinities, which
narratives and mythical worlds that envelop
mode, one mixed with awe, imagination and also becomes the guiding principle of editing
him: first pair consists of the figure of
intent, rather than dry, factual reportage. The too. For instance, from the priest’s speech at
Esthapan emerging from the sea and that of
contestation and reiteration of what is thus the church about virtues of labour and the
him sleeping on the sea wall at the end; and
told and remembered also evoke oral modes duty to live by ‘the sweat of one’s brow’, the
the other is the Sunday Mass at the beginning
of collective fabulation. scene cuts to actual site or a concrete context
and the chavittunatakam play at the end.
Each story adds a shade or colour – of These bracketing devices enfold the narratives of labour – where we see workers lifting huge
awe, reverence, fear, envy, hatred, gratitude, about Esthapan, in a way placing the narrative granite stones on their shoulders under the
irritation, humouretc - to the figure and of the movie at large, at the micro and macro, searing sun to build the sea wall, while the
character of Esthapan. For some, he is a individual and social, personal and worldly, contractor – who owns and oversees labour
blessed one who is capable of working mundane and spiritual levels. While the figure – watches over them. Linked together, these
miracles – cure the ill, appear simultaneously of Esthapan emerging from the immense and scenes present the contrast between the Word
in different places, create money out of thin hazy sea waves is a vision that is recounted and and deed, Ideal and reality of labour in an
air, walk over water, come back from the dead imagined into being, the Esthapan at the end is unequal, real world.
etc – while for some others, he is a thief, a asleep as legends and stories about him seem In another scene, when Lopez, the driver
.................................................................................................................................. October 2021 43
talks about ‘finishing off ’ Esthapan, the scene
straight away cuts to the shot of Esthapan
hanging by the neck in front of the grocer’s
shop. At one level, it is like his wish coming
true, but at another level, it also functions as
a device to take the narrative to the next level.
In the instance where Esthapan is caught red-
handed with the bananas, the scene shifts to
a different story about thieves and stealing
– where the police constable tells the petty
shop owner and the beedimaker about it. His
story is from the other side, about patrolling
at night and the increasing menace of thieves.
Esthapan healing Anna’s child proceeds from
the scene where Lopez is talking with his
assistant about Anna’s lack of interest in him
(in the earlier scene, we see him not paying
her for the sexual favors), and her ‘new client’
Esthapan. It is his sexual guilt and envy that
prompts him to contradict the stories about
Esthapan as a healer with his own version. If
in the assistant’s story, it happens in daylight
with all the neighbours watching, in Lopez’s
version, it happens at night, which is the usual
time he visits her and suspects Esthapan too
is visiting her. Likewise, Paili’s story about
Esthapan at the cemetery dancing with the
ghosts is an exaggerated continuation of the
story he tells the priest – it is a story that
transforms through change in space – church
to arrack shop, and in the teller’s and listener/s
temperament – the saintly and sober priest
in the first case and the drunken Lopez and
fellow-drinkers in the second.
The way in which characters, spaces,
events and contexts are thus fluidly connected
44 ഒക്ടോബര്‍ 2021 .....................................................................................................................................
follow not the ‘realist’ logic but the dream flagrant offence of making up legends’ and so about settling down with a house, boat, net
logic of free and wild association. This further contributes to the invention of his people.” and wife of his own, he says he needs nothing
adds to the oneiric cinematic world that Gilles Deleuze, Cinema 2, p, 145 else but a regular supply of incense. Freed
corresponds with the magical/mythical than from social roles and expectations, he roams
How does one capture someone like
the historical/factual.5 So, in a way, Esthapan free carrying his incense burner, painting
Esthapan – or any individual for that matter
is a film about memory, the act of memorizing and singing. His love/care of/for the world
– in a narrative? The conventional modes
and memorialzing; as to how an enigmatic is not determined by formal obligations,
of narratives depend on linear, beginning-
figure like him emerges and is nurtured, social norms or institutional pressures, but
middle-end structure and teleological
sustained and handed over generations in something spontaneous and flows freely from
reasoning to encapsulate the subject as a
various forms – as memories, stories, lore, within. So, for him, rich and poor, prostitute,
continuous ‘whole’ or as a singular integral
memorials, art forms, rituals etc. grocer and priest, children and adults, master
unit. But Aravindan breaks these narrative
The intoxication of and indulgence in and servant –are all the same. Liberated from
moulds and models; his attempt is not to
storytelling reaches its crescendo where it notions like ‘ownership’ and possession, he
explicate or narrativize Esthapan or his life, but
becomes ‘real’ for everyone and takes on a life inhabits the world as the world inhabits him.
to explore the ways in which one can look at
of its own. The last miracle of Esthapan – that At the visual level, Esthapan’s aversion
life and experience beyond such instrumental
of distributing handfuls of money to all – is to establishments and institutions is evident
logic and through rhizomatic modes.
a collective fantasy, where hitherto individual from his love for the open and exteriors, and
Esthapan is someone who lives outside
fantasies/memories coalesce or merge into a he is always seen in the open, wandering with
the practical logic of a world founded upon
shared and collective memory like legends his incense burner. He loves to paint outside
institutions of powerand reason, that values
and myths. We see a series of individual shots and on exterior surfaces - on walls, rocks,
efficiency and functionality. In that world
of various characters with money in their boats, rather than inside the church or homes.
money is the most central medium that
folded hands, looking up in awe. In his after- Through that act, he brings out the divine
defines everything – the human beings, their
life, Esthapan is a magical or ethereal presence presences from the interiors out into the open
station in life and society, and the relationships
– he is seen in several places at the same time, and to the midst of people. He himself is a
between them. Money is one motif that runs
and is a guardian angel to fishermen on the sea. liminal presence between the human and the
through the film in the form of references to
it is this strange interplay between experience, divine, sacred and the profane.
labour and earning, the presence of different
memory and art, life, death and immortality,
forms of sustenance – manual labour, trade *
real, imaginary and dream – that the movie
and sex work, the issue of ownership, disparity
works with and weaves together. In his portrayal of Esthapan, Aravindan
of wealth etc. And Esthapan finally departs
from the scene after showering money from breaks the conventional modes and models
The Many Lives of Esthapan of portraying characters. Instead of creating a
the sky for everyone to share.
What cinema must grasp is not the identity linear, monolithic and integrated personality,
Spurning institutions and their logic,
of a character, whether real or fictional, through step by step, shot by shot, through a definite
Esthapan lives the life of a wandering minstrel;
his objective and subjective aspects. It is the beginning, middle and end structure
he is averse to the idea of working to earn,
becoming of the real character when he himself narrating the formative events in life,
and earning to live. When the priest asks him
starts to ‘make fiction’, when he enters into ‘the consequent evolution etc, the film resorts to
.................................................................................................................................. October 2021 45
a ‘cubist’ method of sorts where Esthapan is
presented through various angles and points
of view, through shards of memory – often
contradictory and even false – that recount
and retell incidents and personal experiences.
This results in the breaking away from
the very notion of the insular ‘individual’ – a
singular, monolithic entity, continuous and
whole; it is also a breaking away from the very
idea of life as a linear, logical progression.
Instead, the film adopts a multilinear and
kaleidoscopic perspective where the vision,
experience and memory of each person/
character do not converge into a coherent,
logical whole, but diverge and is colored by
their own perceptions, interests and bias.
For instance, Lopez turns the story told by
his assistant about Esthapan healing Anna’s
child upside down, making Esthapan an
impostor and fake healer. In the case of Paily,
the story takes on additional details when told
to his friends in the arrack shop – when he
recounts the event to the priest it is only about
Esthapan and others entering the cemetery,
46 ഒക്ടോബര്‍ 2021 .....................................................................................................................................
digging graves and coming out of it. But in the Esthapan but certain moments or glimpses keep on changing – in itself and according to
version he tells to Lopez, Esthapan and friends into his life recounted and remembered by contexts and the perspective of the viewer or
come out and perform a demonic dance, thus others. It is a narrative mode that captures the teller.
adding to the mystery and horror of the story. not Esthapan, but the process of ‘becoming- Such a ‘pixellation’ of perception, of
Likewise, the ‘real’ story behind Esthapan Esthapan’. approaches to someone – is especially
stealing bananas is revealed only later through This narrative mode fractures or pronounced in mythical stories and persons
a flashback. complicates our understanding and like Esthapan, whose mystery lies in this very
Such contradictions – willful and innocent, experience of ‘reality’ by bringing into play pixellation and elusiveness. For that matter,
playful and intentional – follows the very multiple layers of time and space – real and anyone’s life, if examined and analysed closely
process of memorizing as a dream-like affair, fantastic, actual and virtual, seen and told, – eludes fixities and linearity: like definite
where the subject adds, modifies or deletes the felt and imagined, emotional and conceptual, origins, cause-effect explanations of life events,
‘scene’ according to changing mental states sensual and mental, felt and performed etc. It its evolutionary logic etc. It is not a coincidence
and external contexts. Viewed thus, the very is the warp and woof of these spatio-temporal that there is no indication or mention about
notion of a ‘definitive’ biography or history strands that weave Esthapan for us. The Esthapan’s past in the film; he comes out of
becomes extremely problematic. Aravindan intention is to avoid fixing, pinpointing and nowhere and disappears mysteriously. What
demolishes the very idea of narrating or defining Esthapan, the man, the events and remains – like the fragrance of the incense he
narrativizing Life; instead, he portrays his character, and to explore and elaborate carries - are stories and legends about him.
Esthapan in a sort of ‘pointillist’ manner, ie, upon the possibilities in the rhizomatic Four kinds of perceptions or viewpoints
through a series of impressions, incidents, process of ‘becoming’ Esthapan. For there is come into play in the film: first is through the
memories and dream-like visions, that only nothing stable, definitive or fixed about any act of remembrance or recounting of events by
leaves a patterns, tendencies or trajectories of human being, as life is always a flow and flux, characters – they either recall an incident, an
movement about someone called Esthapan. experienced and expressed not in stasis but instance or dialogue from their own point of
So, what we find/experience in the film is in its everchanging flows and connections, view; secondly, they imagine things and add
not a fully-rounded, and definitive picture of whose shape, direction, intent or orientation spice to the ‘facts’ or ‘memory’ they recount,
.................................................................................................................................. October 2021 47
to either embellish their point or to counter
the other person’s version; thirdly, there are
subjective flashbacks, where the scene cuts
to the event from the word or face of the
characters; fourthly, there is the omniscient
view of the filmmaker himself, where the
events are presented directly and not from any
characters’ point of view, like for instance, the
shots of church festival, Esthapan wandering
etc.
Sea, Shore& the Liminal
If in Kummatty, there is an overwhelming
visual presence of the sky and landscapes, in
Esthapan, it is the sea and the structures of
the fort and church that dominate the visual
field. Sea is the eternal witness – the source of
livelihood that is at the same time benign and
bounteous, and also terrifying and dangerous.
As against the dilapidated and aged man-
made structures and the mortals who inhabit
the shore, the sea is vast and immense, endless
like time and space. The church/fort and its
surroundings and ambience evoke spiritual
and physical expressions and yearnings
of humans to transcend mortality, and to
connect with the Beyond/Divine.
Esthapan is always seen in liminal spaces
– neither in nor out, walking along the beach,
outside the church, in the cemetery, or the
shop veranda. The only occasions where we
see Esthapan in the interior are at the church
during the Mass and at the contractor’s house
when he is invited after he saves the girl. But
in both spaces, he is totally out of place and
uneasy. In the church, he stands at one corner,
48 ഒക്ടോബര്‍ 2021 .....................................................................................................................................
and in the house, he finds staying inside Speech, utterances and chants the contractor is also riddled with references
and sitting on the sofa uncomfortable. The Throughout the film, Esthapan never both to vain labour – that of building walls
liminality that defines Esthapan’s character engages in any ‘dialogue’ in the sense of to the sea - and also about the contractor’s
and life also defines the cinematic world talking to or answering someone through swindle in the process. It is significant that
that Aravindan creates, where reality and speech. The only ‘proper’ dialogue of his in this scene immediately follows the speech
dreams, actual and virtual, experience and the film is with the priest when he says he only of the priest at the Sunday Mass where he
fantasy, all mix and overlap. And it is from the needs an uninterrupted supply of incense extols the virtue of labour and earning from
interstices or points of crisscrossing of other when asked about settling down like others. the sweat of one’s brow. The gesture of the
peoples’ stories that the form and character of All the other spoken words of his are either contractor, when he covers his head with the
Esthapan emerge. It happens neither through poetic utterances or chants. His response to towel, also indicates his averseness to sweat
the ‘objective’ or omniscient viewpoint of a situations and others is through non-speech and labour. In another instance, where the
narrator, or through the subjective one of means, mostly through his guileless smile, police constable meets him in the beach at
Esthapan. intense stare or by looking up or away. He night, Esthapan is chanting to himself about
In relation to both – the sea and the smiles when he is with the children, and when the endless waves of the sea, that rolls over
church/fort, Esthapan occupies the liminal he the parents of the girl invites him to a drink. relentlessly one over and after the other, and
spaces between the two, spaces that are yet remains the same. All these utterances are
More than speaking, he is spoken through.
neither interior/indoors nor exterior or out in elaborate upon and play with the metaphor of
Whatever he utters at different occasions are
the sea. The significance of the two enigmatic the sea – its incessant movement, repetition,
metaphoric and poetic, rather than factual.
sequences at the end of the film: one is where ebb and tide, eddies and currents, waxing and
When he answers the kids worried about
the camera moves from a subjective point of waning.. In his after-life, he appears as the
their exams his answer is about the nature of
view – on land – along the fort walls, entering guardian angel of seafaring fishfolk, warning
knowledge – about knowing One, Two and
and exiting dark interiors, and the other one them about the ‘blind justice of the shattering
Three, through which he hints at the singularity
is in the waters – where the camera moves waves’.
of God or Oneness of everything, the binary
parallel to the rows of boats berthed along of Day and Night, and the triad of Time – past, So, who is Esthapan and what is he? Is he
the shore. These shots are enigmatic as they present and future or the Holy Trinity. He says a figment of peoples’ imagination or someone
are not from any character perspectives, and that the one who knows time, never ages, while whose acts and words are remembered by
nor do they connect explicitly with the rest of the one who doesn’t distinguish between day others? Is he an angel or a ghost, an apparition
the narrative mode or character viewpoints in and night have no sense of time, and one who or for real? ‘The ideal of the true is the most
the film. These sequences trace and traverse doesn’t understand One, is useless, hinting at profound fiction at the very heart of the real’,
the liminal spaces that Esthapan occupies the ignorance about the One beyond all Time. says Deleuze paraphrasing Nietzsche (Cinema
– between the land and the sea, human and Finally, he says that for the one who doesn’t 2, p144). One could say that, in a way this is
non-human, living and dead, mundaneand possess anything, there is no beginning or end. what Aravindan too is seeking in/through the
spiritual, historical and mythical, fixed and It is a gradual progression from the individual, film – truth of Esthapan through fiction; true
fluid.. It is also the liminal world that coincides to time, knowledge, god and towards the bliss that manifests in the act of becoming, not in
with the narrative world and mood of the film. of nothingness. the stasis or fixity of being.
Likewise, the utterance of his that irritates
.................................................................................................................................. October 2021 49
References
1. Chandradasan, Film Maker as an Intuitive Artist
- The Cinema of G Aravindan, Deep Focus, Vol 1,
No IV, January 1989
2. Gilles Deleuze, Cinema 2, 1989, Continuum
Footnotes
1. This long, loud wail-like call reminds one of a
similar one by Rama in Kanchanasita, where
he runs towards the setting sun shouting aloud,
‘Seetha…’
2. ChavittuNadakam is a highly colorful Latin
Christian classical art form believed to have orig-
inated during 16th century AD in Cochin where
the Latin Christian Portuguese missionaries insti-
tuted their first mission. It is noted for its attrac-
tive make-up of characters, their elaborate cos-
tumes, detailed gestures and well-defined body
movements presented in tune with the rhythmic
playback music and complementary percussion.
This art form highly resembles European opera.
This form of play is prevalent among the Latin
Christian community in the districts of Alappu-
zha, Ernakulam and Thrissur of Kerala.The most
sensual blend of cultural influences can be seen
50 ഒക്ടോബര്‍ 2021 .....................................................................................................................................
in this Latin Christian dance-drama with llarge
number of characters in glittering medieval dress.
It is the form of traditional musical dance drama,
which symbolizes the martial tradition of Kerala
Latin Christians.
The stories are mostly the heroic episodes of Bible
or great Christian warriors. Historical incidents,
the life and adventure of heroes like Charlem-
agne; stories of Alexander were the themes of
ChavittuNadakam in the 16th century. In the 18th
century, spiritual themes like “Allesu-Nadakam”,
“CathareenaNadakam”, the victory of the Isaac,
etc. were the themes. In the 19th century mor-
al themes like “Sathyapalan”; “Njanasundhari”,
“Komala Chandrika”, “Anjelica”, “karlsman” were
handled.
3. Play written by PandikkudyOuseph Asan from
Kochi
4. Thanks to Keli Ramachandran and Britto Vincent
for the details
5. But even if one looks at the so-called/claimed ‘his-
torical/factual’ closely, one can see it falling apart
into imaginary and imaginative elements in its
accounts, connections, reasoning and modes of
narration.
.................................................................................................................................. October 2021 51