Tale of surprises

The Tale Of Surprise Valley, which has cancer and its trauma as a theme, is a short film by a group of film buffs

January 30, 2013 08:36 pm | Updated 08:36 pm IST - Thiruvananthapuram

Abhishek Krishnan and Vishnu Jayendran in a scene from The Tale Of Surprise Valley

Abhishek Krishnan and Vishnu Jayendran in a scene from The Tale Of Surprise Valley

When most films are made with an eye on profit, a group of film enthusiasts have made The Tale Of Surprise Valley , a film, to raise money for charity. Directed by Arjun R. Sekhar and Arun Varghese, the story for The Tale Of Surprise Valley is part fiction and partly based on an anecdote told to Arun by one of his teachers.

“My teacher told me a tale about a friend of his and I narrated it to Arjun, a childhood friend and neighbour. He fused real and fiction and turned it into an amazing story,” says Arun.

A film in mind

An aspiring author who is busy working on his debut novel, Arjun admits that he hoped to turn The Tale Of Surprise Valley into a short film, while penning the story.

The Tale Of Surprise Valley is about two doctors who are good friends. They work together in a hospital. Both of them lost their fathers to cancer. The hospital is located in a valley, which one of the doctors dubs Surprise Valley.

“Instead of one climax, we have two climaxes in this film. Cancer and its trauma is a theme in the movie. The actors converse mostly in English and bits of Malayalam in the film. We plan to dub it into Hindi and Tamil soon so that it will reach a larger audience. My mother, Sindhu, who liked the tale, agreed to loan me Rs. three lakh to turn the story to reel. She was okay with the fact that the money raised from the movie is going to charity,” says Arjun, who has written the screenplay for the film.

The cast and crew of The Tale Of Surprise Valley consist of a few members of Akshayapatra: The Igniting of Young Engines, a blog started by Arjun in 2009. The members of Akshayapatra are a group of friends who discuss various social issues on the site.

The Tale Of Surprise Valley The film has been shot by Mahesh S.R., a cameraman at Yes Indiavision in and around the city and Ponmudi. The shoot took eight months to complete as Nature played a spoilsport. Live sound mixing has been done for the film. Abhishek Krishnan and Vishnu Jayendran play the doctors in the film. Indu Nair, Suresh Balraj, Vinay Vilas and Shrikanth Venugopal comprise the rest of the cast.

A student of music from A.R. Rahman’s KM Music Conservatory, Arun, a Western classical music lover, has done the music and sound design for theshort film .

The Tale Of Surprise Valley willbe released on the second week of February. The film will also be screened in Kochi and Kozhikode.

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