Suresh Eriyat, animator and founder of Mumbai-based Studio Eeksaurus is currently home in Kerala, the setting for his studio’s latest offering Kandittund! (Seen It!), an animated black-and-white short, based on the thoroughly entertaining stories about Malayali ghosts narrated by his father PNK Panicker. These characters, replete with distinct looks and personalities, have a host of influences, from movies and Kerala’s performing arts to folklore, urban legends and other hearsay, their descriptions and functions, fluid and ever-changing. There is Eenam-pechi, born when a pregnant woman meets an unnatural death, who collects fruits shed by cashew and mango trees and is terrified of men. There are also Arukola who howls and screams as he floats following people around at night, and Kuttichathan who helps to destroy one’s enemies, among many more. “He gave us bizarre physical clues [like the fact that the spirit Aana-Marutha who visits temple premises around noon looks like a baby elephant that waddles along] which opened the spectrums of our imagination,” says Eriyat, about the colourful and lifelong raconteur. For director Adithi Krishnadas who took on the film soon after graduating from the National Institute of Design, the characters were born of some playing around so that they fit seamlessly into their rural environment. “I drew them in a way that they made me laugh”.

PNK Panicker is the film’s protagonist and narrator introducing viewers to the various spirits