IDSFFK 2025: ‘Metancherry’, an animated meta narrative that humourously captures the history and culture of Mattancherry

A particularly oblique sense of humour marks Sunil Raj’s Metancherry – a graphic animation, one among the huge package of animation films at the 17th International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala (IDSFFK). The protagonist of the 28-minute film, modelled on the animator himself, is on a trip to explore Mattancherry. Inside his hotel room, apparently in a nod to the town’s Portuguese past, he conjures up two famous Portugal nationals from different eras in his Virtual Reality (VR) glass.

In front of him are Portuguese explorer Vasco Da Gama and footballer Cristiano Ronaldo. The narrator introduces Gama as “the other Portuguese forward”, using that bit of inventive sports humour to refer to Gama’s fame as the first European to set foot on these shores. Later, when the narrator visits the Saint Francis Church in Kochi, where Gama was originally buried before his remains were relocated to Lisbon, he says, “Oh! boneless tomb”, making it sound similar to boneless chicken. Ask Sunil about that style of humour sprinkled all over the narrative, he attributes it to his admiration for VKN, one of the masters of satire in Malayalam literature.

Metancherry has a free flowing narrative which slowly soaks the viewer into the history, culture and the unique social composition of the town, all of it seen through the eyes of a first-time visitor during the Biennale, that has now become the place’s identity. Initially, we see him navigating the digital landscape of QR codes and OTP numbers, before he gets lost in the old town. He pokes fun at the propensity of the natives to insert themselves into the historic narrative of the place through the narration of a driver, who fits his family tree into Mattancherry’s 1,000-year old history. The driver being named Fahadh happens to be a cinematic reference to Rajeev Ravi’s Annayum Rasoolum, the quintessential Mattancherry movie.

“Artist Riyas Komu had asked me to go around Mattancherry for some days and conceive a project. I just walked around for days, not clicking any photographs or sketching anything. But, whatever had vaguely registered in my mind was later turned into this animation. Initially, I did not have any narration. It was just gibberish. But, later I decided to add the narration,” says Sunil, whose political cartoons against fascism had made him popular online some years ago. Currently, his graphic novel based on contemporary Kerala is being serialised in a popular Malayalam literary weekly.

Other animation works

Humour is the strong point of Pranav P. Holla’s Athithi Devo Bhava, a satirical take on the superstitious antics of the residents of an upper caste household after a snake is sighted in its vicinity. Appu Soman’s DA’Lit Kids is a stirring tale about a student from a marginalised community who gathers strength from his outspoken ancestors to stand up to a teacher who humiliates him in class. Anavadya M.S.’s Thaniye is a touching take on human-animal conflict from the perspective of an elephant calf, who is left alone after her mother’s death by electrocution.

One of the most memorable animation works this year is Vinnie Ann Bose’s Sulaimani, which is being screened in the Malayalam non-fiction section. Two Malayali women, who have had their own different trajectories and life struggles, have a chance meeting at a restaurant in Paris, also run by a Malayali. It sets off a trail of joyful and sad reminiscences and culminates in the camaraderie of two people who equally yearn for home and dread the thought of returning to it.