The human mind is often described as our defining strength. Out out its intellect has emerged philosophy and art, religion and politics, science and technology — shaping entire civilizations over the last few centuries. But everything so often it has also become the source of our undoing. Beyond the primal instincts of survival, we also pile on layers of belief, ideology, biases, and ambition — each shaping how we see the world, and each capable of blinding us in turn. This very capacity that distinguishes us from animals: the ability to imagine, interpret, and question, also weighs us down with contradictions and trappings of our own making. This is precisely the phenomenon that frames Aromal R Lal’s latest short film 'Jeevi', produced with Bhavana Studios.
The film begins with four friends fishing at dusk. Their routine trip is interrupted by an extraordinary catch: a glowing, fluorescent fish that looks unlike anything they have ever seen. As they pull their boat ashore and debate what to do next, the fish becomes a mirror for their inner drives. One hears divine whispers through his hearing aid and insists the fish is an incarnation of God. Another sees an opportunity to sell it on the black market for profit. A third wants to involve the forest department and uncover its mystery. The fourth remains largely indifferent. In this clash of motives, Jeevi sets up a study of human nature and how quickly curiosity gives way to obsession.
“The curiosity was always about what the fish really is — maybe an alien, maybe a god, maybe something symbolic,” Aromal explains. “But in the end I went with an anti-climax, because from an animal’s perspective, the fish is just meat. That’s it.” For him, this stark reveal is a way of underlining the essentials. “Once we secure food, water, and shelter, we complicate things with religion, capitalism, wars, and world-ending weapons. The fish remaining flesh at the end is my reminder that survival is the root. Everything else is what we build on top of it.”
The design of the fish itself came from a blend of folklore and mythology. Aromal cites the “fur-bearing trout” of American and Icelandic legend as one starting point, and links the religious arc of the character KK to the 'Matsya Purāṇam', where the god Vishnu takes the form of a fish to save humanity from a great flood. “This film has many layers,” he says. “The furry fish came from those influences, mixed with my own absurdist imagination.”
Stylistically, Jeevi sits within the frame of magical realism — a genre that places surrealism inside everyday life, so the ordinary and the extraordinary exist side by side. It is a mode that is somewhat rare in Indian cinema, but Aromal was drawn to its possibilities. “It’s not a genre that’s very common or mainstream here, so I felt it was important to try and bring that to the audience. I see it as my small contribution to the new wave of films in India. As a filmmaker, I think it’s necessary to take those chances even if it feels risky. That’s how cinema moves forward.”
The film’s visual language and cinematography primary establish the tense tone of the story. “The camera was meant to feel chaotic, unusual, sometimes unsettling, so the audience is never fully comfortable,” he notes. Drawing inspiration from Spielberg’s long takes, he reshaped them to suit 'Jeevi': “I wanted to use that idea but bend it into a stranger, more chaotic rhythm.” The blocking and staging keep shifting, giving the viewer little stability and mirroring the characters’ own fraying grip on reason.
Sound also plays a crucial role. Designed by Dhanush Nayanar, the film’s soundscape recently won Best Sound Designer at the NFR Kochi Global Academy Awards. The recognition came with praise from acclaimed filmmaker Vetri Maaran, who singled out Jeevi for its originality and symbolism.
For all its fluorescent strangeness, Jeevi reflects on the unflattering aspects of human nature. The fish here represents something we don't understand and leads into depictions of how we'd probably react if we did come across the meaning of life or the secrets of the universe that we so desperately seek. The harder each man clings to his version of the truth in the film, the more he loses sight of the world around him. Through its neurotic riverbank arguments and its allegorical musings that circle between comedy and dread, the film meditates on the idea that us that perhaps our greatest faculty can just as easily become our most elaborate cage.
Follow Aromal here and watch the short film below:
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