Ayyappan (42), an Intelligence Bureau (IB) officer who is part of a specially constituted anti-terror squad, is a man on the verge of a mental breakdown. His daughter, Jyothi (14), is in vegetative state after having been hit by a car and Ayyappan is obsessed about administering euthanasia to her. He even tries to kill his daughter; only to realize that he is incapable of executing the act.
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Then he devises an improbable, almost childish plan: He would set Yusuf K (29), a young man taken for interrogation by the IB's anti-terror squad, free if in return Yusuf, himself a former IB informer who later becomes disillusioned with his job, agrees to kill his daughter.
Indu (36), Ayyappan's wife, is the one person who by sheer force of her will manages to retain her sense of hope amidst this madness. She knows that there is only a remote chance for her daughter’s recovery; and yet, she chooses to counter her desolation by affirming life every single moment, guided by her belief that one's true sense of being can be found only in one’s inner life which she knows is not dead in her daughter.
| Language : | Malayalam, Kannada |
| Duration : | 91 min |
| Status : | Completed (July 2019) |
| Aspect ratio : | CinemaScope |
| Audio format : | 5.1 |
Minimalist black and white cinematography with long, static takes.
Revelation of drama by bypassing key narrative events and focussing instead on the detailing of mundane moments and dead time.
SURESH P THOMAS
Writer & Director
Udampadi: A Pact explores one of humanity’s oldest and as yet unresolved predicaments: what meaning do civilization’s codes of morality and ethics hold for individuals who find themselves abandoned on life’s precipices?
What does sanity mean for a man trapped between a comatose teenage daughter to whom euthanasia is denied and a young convict tortured by the state for a crime he did not commit?
What does freedom mean for an innocent convict if becoming a murderer is the price he has to pay for it?
What does resilience mean for a woman who has reconciled with her daughter's state of comatose yet is driven by a belief that as long as her daughter's dreams and imagination throb inside her, life and hope have to be preserved, no matter how painful the experience might be.
Suresh p thomas is a fiction writer in malayalam and the assistant editor of Fountain Ink, a magazine dedicated to the long form. He has published three books-two novels and a short story collection: 2048 ki me (DC Books), Choothattakkarallathavarkku Praveshanam illa (Mathrubhumi Books), Sathyamayum Njan Kandu(DC Books). 2048 ki mee won the OV Vijayan novel award for the best debut novel in 2006. His short stories have won various awards. His collection of reportage can be read here: https://fountainink.in/author/20
| Cinematographer | : K R Subal |
| Editing | : Abhilash Vasantha Gopalan |
| Music | : Basil C J |
| Sound Design | : Krishna Kumar |
| Art director | : Binoy Kottakkal |
| Costumes | : Murugesh |
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