Brihannala ki Khelkali

Shakespearean theatricality meets the subtlety of Kathakali subverted in the dramatic space of street theatre to give birth to a performative ‘caliban’ – Khelkali – a hybrid act of articulating the post colonial irony of contemporary India.
　　A political film, which stands apart from rest of Avikunthak's work. The idea of the film took roots when he saw Arjun Raina perform in Stanford. He then decided to make a film on his Khelkali, which was juxtaposition between Kathakali performance and Shakespearian dramaturgy. The core concept of the film was to subvert both the traditions of classical art to bring out the irony of postcolonial situation.
　　This is done throughout the film as the narrative moves between Kathakali, Shakespeare and the performance of postcolonial mimesis done by Arjun. The film ends with a self-reflexive turn with the last monologue that Arjun delivers, where he gesticulates and mocks the filmmaker for making a self-indulgent film. This film is most influenced by Avikunthak's academic training as a cultural anthropologist. Through this cinematic text he attempts to grapple with the irony of the postcolonial situation which cultural theorists such as Homi Bhaha and Gayatri Chakrovorty Spivak have tried to enunciate in their scholarly works.