Sandeep Nandakumar

Sandeep Nandakumar’s name might not be plastered across billboards, but if you’ve poked around the Malayalam film scene, you’ll probably stumble on his work sooner or later. The dude’s got his fingerprints on Swapnarajyam (2019), a movie that doesn’t play by the typical rulebook. It dives straight into the messy, bittersweet side of chasing dreams—think less Bollywood glitz, more raw, everyday hustle. Characters in Swapnarajyam aren’t your usual over-polished heroes; they’re just regular people, fumbling through life, making stupid mistakes, and sometimes—just sometimes—finding a little hope in the chaos. There’s a lot of heart packed into those frames, and you can tell Sandeep knows how to coax out the tangled emotions that come with ambition and disappointment. Then there’s Varikkuzhiyile Kolapathakam (2019), which flips the script and heads into crime thriller territory. This one doesn’t hold your hand or bother with sugarcoating. The story drops you into a small village where secrets fester and nothing is as neat as it looks. There’s a priest—a guy way more complicated than his collar suggests—who gets tangled up in a murder investigation. Sandeep’s approach here is sharp, sometimes almost gritty, peeling back layers of small-town life to expose the underbelly. The suspense builds, and you’re left guessing who’s got something to hide and who’s actually trying to do the right thing. Both films prove Sandeep isn’t afraid to dig into the gray areas, leaving you chewing over the story long after the credits roll.