Snakes on a Plain?

The alien and iconic nature of snakes has attracted filmmakers since Adam spent a sunny afternoon making his rather candid video of Eve and a snake tussling over an apple in the Garden of Eden -- and then uploaded it to YouTube.

This year we're expecting quite an invasion of slithery reptiles from Asian cinema. In the Thai film The Scout (dir. Pleo Sirisuwan), the snake is extremely large; in The Intruder (dir. “James” Thanadol Nualsuth and “Ping” Thammanoon Sakulbunthanom), also from Thailand, it's a Cobra spirit and is accompanied by hordes of smaller acolytes. Director Jennifer Lynch's foray into Indian cinema, Hisss!, offers us a snake that is a human-serpent hybrid -- a mythological creature of great antiquity.

Now we can add this one to the list -- Nanjupuram, directed by Charles, a Tamil thriller that is "the first of its kind". Here it's a horde of normal-sized snakes, but in such vast numbers that together they add up to one really big monster.

Teaser Trailers:

Clearly what the cobras in this poster are waiting for is a song from the movie's lead star, Raaghav Ranganathan, who is a big name popstar/rap artist in his home country. He also supplies the music for the film.

Funny how Indian male leads so often look like they've come direct from the set of a 1970s British cop show.

Trailers:

The plot concerns a man who is not at all scared of snakes, which is opportune as he lives in Nanjapuram village where snakes are worshipped as gods. When the village is invaded by thousands of snakes, Raaghav's character must find out what lies behind the strange and frightening events -- discovering in the process that some of the human inhabitants of the village can be more poisonous than the cobras.

Movie starlet Monika plays the love of his life. 

Images from the film concentrate rather heavily on the romantic aspect of the story, which clearly is a significant drawcard. Sites such as Kollywoodzone and way2movies: Tamil are repositories of dozens of them.

Director Charles has also indicated that the snakes used in the film are real ones, used with the permission of the Animal Welfare Board. CGI is not in evidence here (Source). He added:

Although the movie is about snakes, it will not promote the superstitious beliefs usually associated with serpents in Hindu mythology. The movie will also touch upon caste issues. (Source)

If your Tamil is up to scratch, you can hear more about the film and news of its progress here, here and here.

The Music:

Also in the film is South Indian actress Anuya, who performs in one of the musical numbers. She commented: "It’s a song that narrates the outline of this movie and there’s nothing to do with glamour here." (Source)

Addendum: Early Trailer

Mallika and Jennifer Lynch Get Snaky

Seen as a sort of Slumdog Millionaire for horror buffs, snake-fanciers and males generally, Hisss (India/US-2010; dir. Jennifer Chambers Lynch) stars Mallika Sherawat, one of India's sexiest female stars, as a shapeshifting Naga. (If you don't know what a naga is, go read this article on Undead Backbrain to catch up on the whole part-woman, part snake thing.)

Here's director Jennifer Lynch and Mallika Sherwat on set:

Says producer Govind Menon:

I definitely want people to see this film and say it is the greatest horror movie made in the history of cinema –- better than Hitchcock, better than The Exorcist.

Ambitious, eh? He sees Hisss as a genuinely international film -- the first Bollywood film to have the sort of money and Hollywood co-production backing that Jennifer Lynch brought with her to the project. When asked why it will appeal to Western audiences, he commented:

The vampire has been around for 200 hundred years, but this character has been around for 5,000 years... It crossed all of these different countries and cultures [India, China, and the Far East in general].

However, I would've thought this was a far more down-to-earth reason:

Mallika said of her role in the film (which is performed without dialogue):

I’m happy to be a part of this. For a snake that doesn’t speak, my character in the movie is very sexy, it’s venomous and it can swallow whole. A story like this comes only once in a lifetime. It’s a popular legend you are part of...

She added:

As it is, my parents have disowned me! Now, when they see me making love to a snake…?! Oh my God! And it was a rubbery, slimy, slithering snake. And Jennifer would tell me, ‘Lick it harder!’ Yuck!

Click on the above image to see it much larger.

You can read a longer article (from which I took the above quotes) on Buzzine Bollywood.

For more pictures from Hisss, the trailer and more info on the film, read Part 2 of the Undead Backbrain article "Of Snakes and Women" here.

And just for good measure, here's some pictures provided by Avery, who gives Mallika his vote for "Sexiest Actress of the Year". He comments: "I know the female cast of Assault Girls are all equally super-sexy but this lady makes a man-eating serpent sexy."

 

• Sources:  Bollywood Buzzine; BharatBytes; various Google searches.