In ‘Ashvamithra’, director Earthling Koushalya views life from a child’s perspective

“A child’s perspective matters. I respect that,” declares Earthling Koushalya. Her film Ashvamithra (Horse-Friend) that premiers on Neestream highlights an adult’s understanding of a child’s world in the form of a relationship between a speech therapist and a speech-impaired child. “I never underestimate a child’s understanding of their surroundings and their parents. They take things in a light hearted manner and warm up to adults who respect their emotional intelligence.”

Earthling’s volunteering experience at hospice care centres in the US helped develop her script better. “I spent a lot of time with the elderly and children. I used to do clowning activities too at orphanages for juveniles. It’s my deep-layered experience that comes through in the film. When I sat down to write this script, I finished it in three hours straight. It was a surge of creativity.”

Ashvamithra filmed in Puducherry won the Cinema Paradiso award at Auroville International Film Festival in 2020. While actor Harish Uthaman plays the therapist along with child actor Tareetha ET, Earthling mentions that the rushing waves of the ocean plays a vital role. Ocean, she says, is symbolic of the relationship between the two and how they derive their strengths from each other. “The therapist who suffers from a traumatic childhood stammers while interacting with adults. He opens up when he enters the child’s life and heals himself while trying to help the child regain her ability to speak.”

Earthling assures that the film shows actor Harish in a new light who has been typecast as cop or villain in commercial films. “He encourages independent filmmakers and with Ashvamithra, I have changed the perspective of audience with regard to his performance.”

The film produced by Earthling’s Accessible Horizon Films has a run time of 79 minutes and has been released on Neestream in the last week of August.