‘Girl Friends’ breaks stereotypes, says librarian Shobhana Padinjhattil whose film will premiere at IFFK

Despite her busy schedule, Shobhana Padinjhattil always made sure she never skipped the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) held annually in Thiruvananthapuram. This year too, Sobhana will attend the festival, not as a delegate, but as a filmmaker whose debut feature directorial ‘Girl Friends’ will premier at the IFFK in the Malayalam Cinema Today category. She will be part of a large delegate of women filmmakers, including four Malayalis, whose work will be shown at the IFFK.

Shobana who works as the chief librarian at the State Central Library in Thiruvananthapuram says she always dreamt of becoming a filmmaker and most of her exposure to world films began through the IFFK, though she found her passion for world cinema from her days at Sree Kerala Varma College. An ardent reader, she fell in love with script writing and would scribble scripts whenever she got the time. But becoming a filmmaker remained a dream for a long time. “In the 1990s and 2000s, it was not easy for women to enter the writing and filmmaking space in movies. I had a lot of limitations as a woman during those days. It took me years to break from that shell. I had to pursue Library Science due to family pressure though my real passion was filmmaking. The scenario has changed now,”she said.

She said lack of financial support had also hindered her dream from coming true for some time. However, her project has now been financed with the money she took from her Provident Fund. ‘I am living my dream now, though there have been difficulties in the process. I am so glad that my work has been accepted at the IFFK,” she said.

‘Girlfriends’ first premiered on YouTube as a short film. However, following its acceptance, Shobana decided to convert it into a 70-minute feature film that focues on the lives of five women and their relationships.

She added there were practical difficulties when she decided to extend her short film into a full-length feature film. “All the artists had to return to the sets to work for the remaining shoot. We had to find the time convenient for all of them, which was quite difficult to plan. However, we were able to pull off the project succesfully,” she said. She added that her husband, who is also an independent filmmaker, supported her with the technical crew.

Most of the scenes of ‘Girlfriends’ were shot inside a cafe in Thiruvananthapuram. In fact, the story was inspired from a restaurant that was closed during the Covid lockdown. “Most of the story unfolds at the restaurant that I imagined. I have also tried to imbibe a lot of humour through the dialogues,” said Shobhana, who is confident that her film will break stereotypes.

“The women in my story won’t fit into the standards expected by society. They are not demure but people who have different attitude to life and relationships,” she said. Though she had conceived the film as a comedy initially, she decided against while developing the script. “One of the women face violence and domestic abuse in her relationship. It would not be fair for me to treat it lightly. This is why I changed the tone of the narrative,” she added. ‘Girl Friends’ features Janaki Raven, Aswathi Sarang, Remya Valsala, Kannanunni and Rosa Felicia.