Chilappol Daivam: Short film based on true story is a chilling reminder that medical professionals are human beings too

When IT professional and social media savvy Saira Mary (Prayaga Martin) receives a call from an unknown number and hears the man on the other end of the line talk about ending his life, her first reaction is that it’s a prank and disconnects the call. Saira, who has a 3 am friend (voiced by veteran actor Mukesh), tells him about this strange call and that she wasn’t quite convinced it was a prank – there was something about the tone and the voice that told her that all was not well.

Calling back and figuring out if there is something she can do to avert this situation seems the best bet, so she rings mystery guy, who calls himself ‘3D’. 3D has all but made up his mind that it’s all over for him, but he wants to say his piece before he does so. Can Saira talk him out of taking his life?

Chilappol Daivam, a Malayalam short film directed by Vishnu Raj, dropped on Saina Movies’ YouTube channel last evening. The 24-minute film is based on a script by Mridul George and Anil Krishnan, inspired by the tragic tale of Dr Anoop Krishnan, a Kollam-based surgeon, who took his own life, following the death of a young child in post-operative care at an orthopedic centre run by him. Dr Anoop, reportedly, committed suicide following harassment from the deceased child’s family. The case had garnered a lot of attention as the patient had a history of heart disease, owing to which other doctors had refused to operate on her leg; a procedure Dr Anoop reportedly took up in the hope of providing better quality of life to the child.

The short film takes inspiration from this tale and new gen’s judge, jury and executioner approach on social media, where judgement is almost always passed without understanding all the facts and with certain biases on mind. Chilappol Daivam attempts to shine light on this and how reactions based on half-baked information can do more harm than good. It is also a poignant reminder that medical professionals are, at the end of the day, human, like any of us, prone to error. Most importantly, they have feelings too.