Kalyani lives with her ailing aunt and works in two households in Trivandrum, Kerala. Her life follows a pattern as she carries on with her life of duty as a cook and carer. Each day feels the same, but each day is not the same too.
As the romance of poetry ignites a passion, as the stories of other worlds stirs a desire, as sharks close in and death draws near, Run Kalyani builds into an intense crescendo of grief and grit, sorrow and strength.
This “mesmerising Malayalam film” with multiple layers of signification deals with nurturing and domestic violence, paid and unpaid care, love and poetry, class and gender, day-to-day routine and cyclical repetitions that change ever so slightly to give way one day!
Directed by Geetha J, the film has won numerous awards at international film festivals with accolades from leading critics like “visual storytelling at its finest”, “transforming the unremarkable life of a cook into everyday poetry” and “the director deftly threads the various shades of male oppression, conjugal silences, extra-marital love, kindness, women’s sisterhood, fantasies and changing socio-political images” to pick a few.
With an ensemble cast and many first-time actors, the film is a confident and mature intervention in filmmaking.