The dark alleys of the Kallukuttai slum in Taramani is his studio and the children of the locality are his cast and crew.
Meet V. Ritheesh, a 11th standard student of Thoraipakkam Government School and resident of the same slum who has been shooting short films on social issues with a basic mobile phone.
At the age of 16, when children of his age group play games on the mobile phones, Ritheesh started shooting short films driven with a dream to bring some change to the substandard infrastructure in the locality he lives. He was recently honoured by the Loyola Institute of Vocational Education for the films he shot.
The first six-minute film he shot was with a two mega pixel camera in 2011. “It was on the pathetic state of infrastructure in my locality. There are no toilets or proper roads and water stagnates whenever it rains. We live in hell,” explains the teenager, who is a big fan of director Atlee. Born to Venkatesan, a daily wage earner and Ambika, a maid, Ritheesh gathers story plots from the problems he sees around him. “I shot a film called ‘Thanneer’ in 2016 and it was on the 2015 Chennai floods and the problems we faced. Another movie I shot was called Saathi Maruppu on caste issues,” he explains. The recent one he shot was Thani Oruvan for Swachh Bharath.
Whenever he gets an idea, the small night school, called Neervazhi-Thulir run by the Tamil Nadu Science Forum, gets abuzz with activity. His classmates Bhuvana, Indumathi, Jennifer, Rajesh, Sanjay and others become his cast. “We are from the same locality and we all face the same problems. So we can relate to the role easily,” says Jennifer.
Ritheesh has also tried his hands on a ghost film called Aviyin Ulagam (ghost world) in 2015. “I realised that subjects on social issues are more important as they can bring in a change,” he says.
Parental support
A commerce-computer science student, Ritheesh claims that his interest in films has not affected his academics in any way. “I scored 399 marks in 10th standard. My parents were initially angry thinking I was wasting time. But now they support me,” adds the teenager.
Such short films are just a stepping stone as he dreams to pursue a course in film making. “This is a great tool to change society,” says Ritheesh before disappearing into the dark alleys of the slum in search of yet another plot for his film.
