For brothers Kanish and Rish, family fun means collaborating to write and direct a film based on their culture, creating characters based on their own grandmother and casting their great aunt to play her.
\n\nThe duo’s first feature film “Namaslay” does all of this as a horror satire that ignites conversation about the appropriation of yoga in the West, proving culture is the blood that keeps the past alive. To accomplish this “incisive” commentary about exploitation, the brothers reflected on their newly developed relationship with their own grandmother, who directly inspired Paati (played by Usha Krishnan) and helped them pursue this nuanced story.
\n\n“I think it’s because of this relationship between the grandmother and the granddaughter that we’re able to articulate that maybe more sensitively than we had initially,” Rish explained at the Variety Screening Series. “Having these sorts of relationships to skew the script — more blowtorch, less flamethrower — really became instructive.”
\n\nAlong with their real-life relationships, their family’s lived experiences also shaped the story and how they wanted to tell it.
\n\n“There’s something that’s truly slapstick almost about the whole experience, but then there’s also something beneath that’s kind of sinister,” Rish said. “It’s a lot of…
Original source: https://variety.com/