Christo Tomy’s Undercurrent

In Netflix’s true crime movie, Curry & Cyanide: The Jolly Joseph Case, Christo Tomy chronicled the life of Jolly Joseph, a woman who poisoned several members of her family who happened to get in her way. In his debut feature film, Ullozhukku (Undercurrent), he returns to family dynamics—lies, secrets and lack of conversation—and its often corrosive impact on relationships. Trained at the Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute, Kolkata, Tomy started work on the script in 2016, but only finalised it before the lockdown. After failing to find the perfect location for his film, he went back to the original inspiration, his mother’s home in Kuttanad, with a river in front and a paddy field at the back. It meant his grandmother and his uncle’s family had to live away from their home on rent for 18 months but they did so happily for Tomy. His story is set during the floods, a common occurrence in Kottayam, and involves a young newly married woman, her mother-in-law and the local village. There is a corpse that needs to be buried but the waters are not receding, there is a lover who is waiting for his woman to come to him, there are the young woman’s parents, and an aunt who has become a nun. What does a woman with limited choices make of her situation? Does she settle for a life of uncertain freedom or a life of certain but circumscribed love? The film will be shown at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles, from June 27 to June 30, and will also release commercially in Malayalam with subtitles. For Tomy, half the battle was won when Parvathy Thiruvothu came on board. Says Tomy, “If you’re able to excite an actor, the producer follows, and then the struggle is to get the audience to see it. And the bigger your box office, the more people will come to see your next movie.” Tomy’s film comes in a particularly good year for relevant and innovative commercial cinema in Malayalam, from the emotional Manjummel Boys, the world-building of Premalu and the atypical humour of Aavesham.

Kartik Aaryan’s New Goal

“I am not running anymore with no finish line,” says Kartik Aaryan of the transformative 18 months he devoted to Kabir Khan’s Chandu Champion. Continuing with the introspection that began with his character Sattu, in Satyaprem ki Katha (2023), he worked on himself emotionally, psychologically and physically. Apart from a diet of tofu and soup for two years, he had to change his sleep patterns, and live the life of an athlete. “We also did several workshops and readings, deconstructing Kartik and constructing the image of the subject of the biopic, Murlikant Petkar,” he says. “It came at the right time in my career,” he says. “I no longer crave validation,” he says. He says he has manifested many things, including the body he wanted—that of Brad Pitt in The Fight Club (1999). “It was the opportunity of a lifetime,” says the actor.

Sunita Rajwar’s Pain

“Comedy is all about pain and suffering,” says Sunita Rajwar, who has had more than her share of pain in life. “It’s just a way of hiding pain,” she adds, and surely Bittu ki Mummy in Gullak and Kranti Devi in Panchayat embody this. Two disenfranchised and disempowered women who are trying to do the best they can with a smile on their faces. A graduate of the National School of Drama in Delhi, Rajwar nearly didn’t get the role of a policewoman in Sandhya Suri’s Santosh which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. “Mine was a last-minute casting,” she says, adding that when directors from abroad have auditions, they sit in on them. “They want to meet and understand the artist,” she says. Rajwar is doing well as an actor now but there was a time she threw away her union card because she was being offered only maids’ roles in television. “It was a humiliating time and we would get paid per day,” she says. That is when she started working with Chandran Arora as an assistant director and learnt editing. Her career saw an upswing with Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan (2020), Stree (2018) and Kedarnath (2018). “I had to make a union card again and my life changed again,” she says. She remembers the first time she got to stay where the main cast was staying. “I remember calling up my husband and telling him I was in a single room in a nice hotel. I didn’t have to share the make-up room. I started getting respect, also because I was ageing. I was not the timid girl of 23 who had come to Mumbai from Delhi.” Rajwar is originally from Haldwani, and is proud to call herself the daughter of a truck driver who always wanted the best for his family.

BollywoodChristo TomycinemaKartik AaryanSunita Rajwar