Standing apart from the new movie releases this Friday will be a film made by a few students of Ramapuram Upper Primary School, Venkavila, in Anadu grama panchayat.
The release of the movie of these young film-makers, however, will not be in a regular theatre. It will be in their own school, at 10.30 a.m., with legislator Koliyakode N. Krishnan Nair inaugurating the screening.
A. Shajahan, Director of Public Instruction (DPI), will release the CD of the movie.
The film, titled ‘Pachapoovu’ is 35-minutes long and tells the story of Maattha, a 10-year-old tribal girl, who is denied education due to the superstitions surrounding the education of girls in their tribe. But she is helped by children of the nearby village to enter the world of letters. Reprimanded by her tribe chieftain for this, the girl however goes on to prove that her education is a boon for the tribe and even the forest in which they live.
How she proves that is the crux of the movie, the storyline of which was developed by the students of the Ramapuram school themselves.
Anadu Rajasekharan, whose brainchild the movie was, says the shooting, done in the Kallar forest area and at Ramapuram, was over in one week with the children giving it their all.
Local body chips in
The panchayat, headed by Mr. Rajasekharan’s wife P.N. Sheela, helped them with Rs.90,000 from its annual funds to help make the film while there were other donations too that helped the children.
The movie is directed by Sudhakaran Vithura.
The plan, according to Ms. Sheela, was to seek the help of the DPI to screen the movie in all schools across the State, and thus to create awareness among children on superstitions, the importance of education, and also to encourage more students to take up such initiatives.
The children, according to Mr. Rajasekharan, were also told about the nuances of film-making during the shooting process.
