At the International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala 2026, Ramith Kunhimangalam's 'It Was Here Before Our Time' has drawn attention for the seriousness of its intent and the delicacy of its gaze. The film, produced by actor-director Rajesh Madhavan, is positioned not merely as a cultural record but as an act of remembrance, centring Maari Theyyam, one of the region's most evocative ritual performance traditions. In a festival landscape often shaped by experimentation and urgency, the film stands out for its commitment to atmosphere, heritage and the spiritual weight of a living practice.
Ritual As Living Memory
Maari Theyyam occupies a distinctive place in Kerala's cultural imagination. It is not simply a performance to be watched, but a ritual experience embedded in belief, community participation and inherited memory. By choosing this subject, Kunhimangalam places his film within a long conversation about how traditional art forms survive in modern India: through devotion, documentation and the fragile continuity of local knowledge. The title itself, 'It Was Here Before Our Time,' suggests a recognition that the ritual predates the present generation and resists easy ownership by contemporary audiences.
The significance of the film lies in its refusal to treat the ritual as exotic spectacle. Instead, it appears to approach Maari Theyyam as a cultural language with its own internal logic, symbols and emotional register. That distinction matters. Too often, folk and ritual traditions are flattened into visual novelty for outside consumption. A film that seeks to honour rather than extract from such a tradition must balance aesthetic clarity with restraint, allowing the ritual to speak on its own terms.
A Producer's Cultural Bet
Rajesh Madhavan's involvement as producer adds another layer of interest. Known primarily as an actor and filmmaker, Madhavan's support signals a broader willingness within Malayalam cinema to back work that is culturally specific and formally serious. In an industry where commercial imperatives often dominate, producing a documentary rooted in ritual heritage is itself a statement about what kinds of stories deserve space and legitimacy.
That choice also reflects a growing recognition that cultural preservation increasingly depends on filmmakers, archivists and independent producers willing to invest in projects with limited commercial upside but substantial historical value. A film on Maari Theyyam is not only about one ritual form; it is about the ecosystem that sustains such forms, including performers, communities and the intergenerational transmission of belief. In that sense, the production is part of a larger preservation impulse that has become more urgent as traditional practices face pressure from urbanisation, changing social habits and the shrinking visibility of local performance cultures.
Festival Context Matters
IDSFFK has long served as an important platform for documentary cinema in India, especially for films that engage with identity, memory and social change. Within that context, 'It Was Here Before Our Time' fits a festival tradition that values films capable of expanding public understanding of place and practice. The documentary's presence at the festival also underscores the continuing relevance of regional cultural narratives in national and international film discourse.
What gives the film added resonance is the timing. As Indian cinema increasingly grapples with questions of authenticity, representation and cultural rootedness, works like Kunhimangalam's remind audiences that documentary can be both aesthetically compelling and historically necessary. A film about Maari Theyyam is not only documenting a ritual; it is also documenting a worldview, one in which performance, devotion and community are inseparable.
The film's appeal, then, is likely to extend beyond specialists in folklore or ritual studies. For general audiences, it offers a rare entry point into a tradition that is visually powerful and spiritually dense. For cultural historians, it may serve as a valuable record of practice and context. And for the festival itself, it reinforces IDSFFK's role as a venue where cinema can function as cultural testimony.
In a media environment often dominated by speed and spectacle, 'It Was Here Before Our Time' arrives with a quieter but more enduring proposition: that some stories are not new, but ancient; not invented for the screen, but entrusted to it. By turning his lens toward Maari Theyyam, Ramith Kunhimangalam has made a film that appears determined to preserve not just an image, but an inheritance.