Daayam

Daayam, which is a Malayalam film, takes place in a town in Kerala. Kalyani (Aathira Rajeev) is going through the most emotionally challenging period of her life after her mother passed away a few days back in the most unexpected manner. Her house is full of relatives as they need to complete a few rituals for the departed. There are murmurs about all not being well between her mother and father Raghu (Pradeep Geedha) in recent times. Kalyani mentally takes stock of these situations as she tries settling into a new life with her father.

In his sophomore venture, Daayam (Inheritance), Prasanth Vijay tiptoes gently and noiselessly into the inner world of a girl dealing with the premature death of her mother. The result is a subtle, mellow study of bereavement and its upshots. The independent Malayalam-language film makes a sharp departure from the conventions of the coming-of-age genre. It uses the muted and delicate narrative approach of the kind that marked the director’s critically acclaimed 2017 debut, The Summer of Miracles.

Grief does not always arrive as a torrent. Sometimes, it seeps in ever so slowly, evoked by things which used to be mundane till a few days ago. In Prasanth Vijay’s film Daayam (Inheritance), being screened in the Malayalam Cinema Today section of the 28th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK), an old voice note from her deceased mother about some daily chores brings 17-year old Kalyani (Aathira Rajeev) to tears.