‘A young boy, living with his parents, goes missing’ might make just another regular mystery thriller. But in debutant director T. Ranganathan’s conception, it is a social thriller. The added ingredient: the blue whale challege.
Titled Blue Whale, the film stars Kabish Khanna as the young boy, with Birla Bose and Divya playing his parents. Poorna plays the Assistant Commissioner of Police who investigates the trail of clues left by the boy indicating the role of the game. The film is nearing completion and will likely release January or February 2019.
Blue Whale is an online gaming phenomenon that surfaced during 2016. In the game, the player is assigned a series of tasks by administrators whose final task culminates in the suicide of the player. Though many deaths were reported in the country, the government was unsuccessful in tying up them up with the game.
Sources close to the movie say that it aims to expose the irony behind the way in which parents, who in their bid to secure their kid’s future get caught up in a rat-race only to wind up without having time to spend with their kid and ultimately ignoring him. Left with no choice, he takes to the game without knowing its life-threatening nature.
The movie also intends to make a point about how in today’s world the hardships faced by an individual are not confined to just financial and political situations.
Produced by D. Mathu, the technical crew of the movie comprises of K.K handling the cinematography and Joker fame Shanmugham Velusamy who takes care of editing. Music has been composed by P.C. Shivan.
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Talking about the movie, director Ranganathan told ToI, “Every child has a smartphone today and that increases the risk. From Blue Whale to the recent Momo challenge (a form of cyberbullying), there are many such scary games. We may not be able to identify the criminals, but we can show parents how to safeguard their kids. That’s what my film will focus on.”