As a four-year-old, Pranav had drawn pictures of taps and birds that came to rest. His mother had recognised an artist in him, someone who observed what went on in nature. It didn’t surprise her when years later, she chanced upon a stack of his nature photos, taken on the phone and his DSLR camera. Only, Pranav was no longer alive. He had died two years ago. His mother, still torn by what she calls his broken journey, picked a few dozen photos he had taken, framed them, and hung them at the Museum Hall in Thiruvananthapuram, for a single-day exhibition on June 13.

Mini IG, the mother – familiar to Malayalis as an actor and filmmaker – stood in the middle of the hall, surrounded by all the photos she chose from his huge pile. “He took photos from the time he was 16, and clicked straight for three years,” Mini says, her eyes always flitting to one of the photos hanging around us.

She has had a difficult time in the past two years, with her debut film as a director running into trouble with the delays it faced in getting a release. Divorce, the film, was produced by the Kerala government as part of its project to fund women filmmakers. In between her fights for the film, Mini also battled with the grief of losing her son.

Pranav's photo at the exhibition

Pranav died when he was only 20, halfway through his engineering course. “Electronics engineering, it was his choice, but he was more interested in photography. I am not sure when it began. He had always liked everything — he drew a little, sculpted too. Sometimes he would create or design objects or scenarios and then photograph them,” Mini says dreamily.

You can observe that in Pranav’s hand series — hands, real and molded, placed one on top of another, or appearing bloody, or raised and muddy -- which he captioned ‘Oppressed’. But mostly he would be behind little creatures of nature, flowers and birds. Pranav loved birds, in flight or resting — the love that Mini had discovered in his childhood stayed unhindered.

“When we talked, he would be like a typical young person, wanting to go to the mall. But when he took photographs or became creative, he always went back to nature,” Mini says.

She stresses on raising Pranav the way he was, without forcing or influencing him in any way. That was how she was herself parented — allowed to choose her path in arts, while being cautioned how difficult a life that would be. When her turn came to parent, she couldn’t see him finish that journey. But, she says with a heartbreaking smile, she will document what he has left behind.