30-04-2025
Shalini Vijayakumar's Seeing Red, brings power and patriarchy to the fore
At her residence in the city, Shalini Vijayakumar sits cross legged, and is a picture of calm when she talks about her film Seeing Red. This is ironic, given how the film feels like an ode to rage; a feminine rage that feels like a ticking time bomb, ready to explode.
The 30-minute film was one among the four selected for this year's MAMI Select: Filmed on iPhone initiative to showcase emerging filmmakers from across the country. The slapstick satire, set in 1986 and shot entirely on an iPhone 16 Pro Max, chronicles how a regular morning in a traditional household turns chaotic owing to the appearance of a ghost. The kicker? Only the women in the house are able to see her, and the men scuttle about in fear, at their wits end about what to do.
'The idea for Seeing Red germinated from me black sheep of my family. Despite having the priviledge and freedom to act on my choices, many of my decisions have not been very welcome. How my mother has been impacted by all of this and the system, inspired me to write it,' says Shalini.
Her relationship with her mother, and the guilt she has had to wrestle with led her to introspect. 'Women over generations have dealt with unprocessed anger. How would it be if my mother, or any woman, just gave into the urge to scream at all the fear and shame we are often forced to hold on to?' she asks.
In Seeing Red, Shalini says the men have embraced 'benevolent chauvinism', and this manifests itself in how they react to the three women from their orthodox family who attempt to make their voice heard. 'They are immediately told that all of this is for their good. There are a handful of people asking me if I am targetting a community, but I am not. The issues you see in the film are systemic and can be placed in any other power system, and it will still remain the same. I chose this setting because of how familiar I am with it,' she says.
Bolstered by an ensemble cast comprising Shivaani Harikumar, Sahana Sundar, Soundarya Saravanan, Preethi Bharadwaj, Manasvini Kannan and led by actor and comic Badava Gopi, the film was shot in four days. Shalini was mentored by director Vetrimaaran, who she says was straightforward with his feedback. 'Working on a short timeline meant that I often needed a jolt from getting too indulgent. His insights were valuable,' she says.
The film opens bombastically, with the family thrown into utter chaos with the appearance of the ghost, and this, she shares, was a conscious writing choice. Having been influenced by Bell Hooks' writing, and the films of K Balachander for his social commentary and Visu for how he presented large family units, Shalini quotes Phoebe Waller Bridge on her choice to opt for a slapstick satire to drive her point home. 'Disarm the audience with comedy, then punch them in the gut with drama when they least expect it,' she says.
Shalini, who co-wrote the film with her partner Roju, says that they were on an equal footing when it came to their anger about caste and gender power structures at play. 'For instance, we see the labour of women being exploited for close to nothing, and anytime a woman attempts to speak, she is asked to work hard and keep quiet. I might have set the story in the 1980s but the patriarchy still remains all too familiar,' she adds.
Since its release on YouTube, Seeing Red is inching close to 500k views, and has hundreds of comments from people who have discussed and debated its many details and themes.
Enthused by the reception the film had at its premiere in Mumbai and on YouTube, Shalini hopes to take her work to more festivals, and has a couple of ideas in mind for her next project already.
'I feel like the film has gained a lot more depth because of how the people have received it,' she says. 'The feedback has been eye-opening, and it has taught me how keenly the audience observes. This is something I will remember and carry forward, in whatever I work on next,' she adds.
