Footage Review | Saiju Sreedharan’s Debut Directorial Venture Is Earnest but Inconsistent

The directorial debut of renowned editor Saiju Sreedharan, Footage, belongs to the found footage genre of films, and it is a thriller. If you look at the movie’s story, it is a very linear revenge story from the antagonist’s point of view. Saiju Sreedharan and his co-writer Shabna Mohammed have gone for a tweaked treatment by opting for a different perspective using the found footage technique. While the core bits that are happening in the jungle have a gripping choreography, the writing is somewhat irregular, and you can really see the patches where they have conveniently overlooked many things.

So the film is basically revolving around a couple who are living in Kochi. They are YouTubers who do stories about peculiar places by collecting footage and conducting interviews with people. The curiosity to peak into other people’s privacy eventually gives them a new target, their neighbor in their flat. What we see in the movie Footage are the events that happen in the life of these two when they decide to follow their mysterious neighbor to a forest.

Prior to the release of the movie, Manju Warrier had posted a reel telling how the content is strictly for an 18+ audience and that nobody should expect a wholesome entertainer film. Well, it doesn’t really take much time to understand why that disclaimer is there, as the very first scene itself is an explicit sex scene. While that shot and how we discover the dynamic between the lead pair through intimate scenes do help us understand their way of thinking, at times, it feels like the screenplay is lingering on their personal space for too long. When you look at the real drama in the story, it doesn’t really demand this level of detailing of their personal space.

The movie is narrated through two cameras, which belong to the leading man and lady. The real action in the story is taking place inside the forest in an abandoned boat. The choreography of the sequences leading up to the boat and after that has a gripping nature, and one can really recognize the technical effort behind it. In those areas, the movie is quite engaging. Since the movie uses the found-footage setting, one might think that it is a collection of long shots. But Saiju Sreedharan has chopped scenes somewhat similar to a regular movie while maintaining the genre aesthetic. There is a level of incoherence in the film as some of the escapes of the lead pair don’t make sense. And no offense, considering the texture of the film, it is really tough to assume that Manju Warrier can carry Vishak Nair on her shoulders.

Vishak Nair and Gayathri Ashok have a warm on-screen chemistry, which was essential for the movie. It is actually some of the characterization traits that didn’t blend well. There are patches in the film where Gayathri’s character talks about how people like her mother are trapped in the good-wife image. All those dialogues kind of felt on your face, and Gayathri was struggling to make those lines sound a bit more organic. Vishak’s typical eccentric energy is utilized here, and the way the guy calls his partner Baby, even in the most life-threatening situation, makes the situation a tad funny. Manju Warrier plays the most important character in the story, but she doesn’t have any lines, and if you check very precisely, I feel she is hardly there for around 10 minutes in the film. Bhanumathi Payyannur, who played the part of the maid, was my favorite in terms of performance, and it was indeed a quirky, refreshing character.

Malayalam cinema is in a phase where some daring experiments are being done on a mainstream level, and movies like Bramayugam and Gaganachari have got good reception from the audience. Footage is a sincere attempt from Saiju Sreedharan to make the storytelling more exciting. However, the inconsistencies in the screenplay are affecting the engagement factor considerably, and what you eventually get is a wannabe film that tried really hard.