Jo.We.Lo. A short film with a name like this is sure to arouse curiosity. In fact, the promos of the film on Youtube have people – the famous and the not-so-famous – wondering what Jo.We.Lo is. And the film’s young script writer duo, Advaita Srikant and Fahim Safar, refuse to divulge what it means.
“Wait till the release. We cannot reveal more, if we do then the thread of the story will be out,” says Fahim, who is doing law at National University of Advanced Legal Studies (NUALS). Advaita is pursuing her undergraduate degree in commerce (corporate secretariarship) at Stella Maris College, Chennai. All the first-time scenarists will tell is that it is a bi-lingual love story (the boy is Tamil and the girl Malayali) and according to Advaita it is “a musical film”. It has to be, given that the 45-minute film has four songs – one each in Tamil and English and two Malayalam songs. The music is by singer/composer Charu Hariharan and Bhagya Suresh. Bhagya, actor Suresh Gopi’s daughter, has written and sung the English song.
The natives of Thiruvananthapuram have been friends for a long time, meeting at various inter-school competitions. A passion for cinema brought these youngsters together. What started out a year-and-a-half ago as a script for a music video for Charu Hariharan ended up as the short film. “We were working on various stories when this one crystallised and we went with this story,” Advaita says of Jo.We.Lo .
Most of the team involved in the film are youngsters who are hoping to be noticed with this endeavour. When asked why not go full hog and make a full length, the youngsters respond with a dash of pragmatism. “We wouldn’t have the funding but this film has all the aspects of a full length film. However since we are newcomers, we need to prove ourselves first,” Fahim says. Advaita, however, adds, “There is scope in the film to be developed into a two-and-a-half hour full length feature. If someone is willing to fund it then…”
The funding for this film incidentally came from one of Fahim’s friends’ family – Suma and Meghanadan. Suma says she wanted to encourage the youngsters in their efforts. Advika Sivam and Fahim have acted in the film. Newcomer Syamaprakash M. Santhosh has directed the film and the cinematographer is Nimish Ravi. The film, which is in the post-production stage, is tentatively scheduled for release in September at select theatres in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Chennai.
They assure that the film is not a one-off, they have celluloid dreams which they hope will come true one day.
