Biju Viswanath

Director / Cinematographer Biju Viswanath entered into cinema by making short films and music videos. He made his directorial debut with the short film "A Voyage", which was screened in several international film festivals.

Déjà vu, made in English, is Biju Viswanath's first feature film. The film was screened at various festivals including the International Film Festival of Kerala, Locarno film festival, Florence film festival, Pusan film festival and the Mumbai festival.

Filmography:

Déjà vu - 2001 - English

Bad weather imprisons a light house mechanic in a lonely island light house. He waits for assistance, but nobody comes. Endless hours of futile waiting, loneliness, frustration and hunger destroy his sense of time and space. His only link to the outer world is a wireless through which he can only receive messages.

He finds a bruised stranger washed ashore. Like the wireless, the stranger fails to communicate with him, and his actions are fear evoking and suspicious. To complicate things, the light house man overhears a news cast about an escaped convict. His suspicion becomes fear, which develops into a paranoia that subsides only with the murder of the stranger. The radio later announces the arrest of the escaped convict.

Finding himself in a new state of panic, he doesn't want the rescue team to come, fearing that he will be arrested for murder. When the boat does finally arrive, he is shocked to find the boatman has an uncanny resemblance to the dead stranger. The unusual ending suggests that fear never dies and highlights the idea of 'fear thyself'. Wherever he goes he will find a fear evoking stranger.

Direction & Co-Screenplay: Biju Viswanath
Co-Screenplay: Laura Andrews
Cast: Paddy Fletcher and Simon Binns
Cinematography: Biju Viswantah
Editing: Sreekar Prasad
Music: Sharath

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