Hide and tell

Binoy Karamen’s visual-less Blindfold is an ambitious storytelling experiment that immerses viewers in the unseen world of sound

- NIRMAL JOVIAL

In filmmaking, the conventional approach to storytelling has largely relied on the use of visuals, often presented through a third-person perspective that can feel impersonal and detached. Filmmaker Binoy Karamen has defied those norms in his latest project, Blindfold.

An extraordinary film without any visuals, Blindfold follows the life of a visually challenged lottery seller in Kozhikode. The film showcases the world from a first-person perspective that transcends the limitations of traditional cinema.

Karamen, 34, says Blindfold uses the incredible power of sound to offer a breathtaking sensory experience that lets viewers immerse themselves in a world that is at once familiar and unfamiliar, and seen and unseen. “What the blind person, our protagonist, hears—and therefore the audience hear—creates the cinema,” says Karamen. “So, it is like using your ears as the way to feel the world, and have a perspective about the world.”

In 2017, during a visit to Tusharagiri waterfalls in Kerala, Karamen met a tribal man who had lost sight because of cataract. This chance interaction and an old ‘virtual barber shop’ video—that employed binaural sounds to give the feel of a real haircut—formed the conceptual framework for the film in Karamen’s mind.