COIMBATORE: A street play in progress...
Scene I: Conversation at breakfast table. Father doesn’t want to eat idlis and leaves without eating breakfast, as his daughter watches him
Scene II: Father walks down the street to drop his little girl in school. The girl sees a young homeless boy on the roadside asking his grandfather for food. The old man has no food and asks him to drink water instead
Scene III: The schoolgirl asks mother to pack two extra dosas for lunch. While walking to school, she gives it to the old man and the boy. The old man blesses the girl and the father realises how insensitive he has been by wasting food when so many of go hungry
Scene IV: He takes a pledge to not waste food and share food with for the needy
As the play closes with applause at the VOC Park grounds in Coimbatore, the play’s director K. Arun, reads, “It is estimated that one in three people in our country goes without food. We have to banish hunger from our society. Today’s children, our future, have to be motivated to be socially responsible. Parents and the society play a big role in this. Be responsible, children are watching you.”
The play was a part of the International Hunger Day awareness drive organised by Food Bank Coimbatore. Arun now also wants to make a short film with the script.
This young engineering graduate from CIET College has been making short films that make people sit up. “We always complain about inequalities in our society and everything that is wrong with it. Why not set it right by initiating a few steps so that it’s a happy place for everyone?”
It was with this mission that he set out to make short films. His first film, Naan Naanaaga, was about students. “One of the issues the film highlights is to respect women. Most gang wars happen in the campus when one group rags women in the other group. The film asks students to correct this behaviour and also speaks about career goals, identifying and nurturing talent….” Arun says his college was supportive and gave him permission to shoot inside the premises. “My friend Gokul Kanna accompanied me even at short notice. He has done the camera in all my films,” says Arun.
Echarikkai, filmed at a housing unit in Puliakulam, is about keeping your surroundings clean. “When the floods hit Chennai, people came out it hordes to clean up garbage. Why not take the initiative to clean your neighbourhood every day? People think it’s enough if you keep your house clean. What about our streets? We used a mentally challenged person as the protagonist. I played the role myself. It was also an eye-opener to live the life of a homeless.”
Arun has also touched upon social media and the havoc it plays in one’s life in Like Comment Share . The young filmmaker has directed skits on issues as varied as middle-class aspirations and the state of beggars. “Films make a powerful impact. I want to use films to convey the change I want to see in our society. Actor and director Samuthirakani’s films inspire me. Especially Nimirndhu Nil that seeks vigilante justice against the corrupt in society. Director S.P. Jananathan’s Peranmai, a gutsy film that shows the upper caste tilts in our administrationand Purampokku Engira Podhuvudamai, a film on capital punishment . I want to offer realistic films that are creatively superior,” says Arun.
Right now, he says, he is buzzing with ideas. He is writing the script for a futuristic feature film on the relationship between a cop and a thief; he wants to make a short film on betrayal and revenge in sports and another fun film on children enjoying the holidays...
Arun can be contacted at 086829-09352.
