New Delhi, May 9 -- In 2018, photographer and documentary filmmaker Shino Cherian decided, on an impulse, to attend the Koovagam festival in Tamil Nadu, which spans 18 days of the month of Chithirai (April-May) in the Tamil calendar.

At 28, he hadn't done anything close to as daring as venturing into a completely unknown terrain, inhabited by people who were nothing like him. However, along with his friend and fellow photographer Ram Manu Prasad, Cherian went on to document the events of the crucial two days that mark the end of the festival. The result, after eight years and multiple failed attempts at bringing the work to a wider audience, is the recent book, Souls of Someone: Myth, Magic and Mourning in Koovagam.

For two-and-a-half w...