Clint will remain a sorrow for Malayalis always. He had died, in 1983, at the age of six, after leaving behind about 25,000 paintings. Paintings that belied his age.
Two decades after his death, veteran director Harikumar is making a film on the prodigy’s life.
“I felt Clint’s extraordinary life needed to be told on celluloid,” says the director of films such as Sukrutham , Ayanam, and Udyanapalakan . “A few days ago, I discussed the possibility of such a film with M.T. Vasudevan Nair, who also encouraged me to work on it.”
Harikumar says he would start shooting the film later in the year. “I am looking for a little boy to play Clint,” he says. “Clint’s parents will be played by leading artistes of Malayalam cinema.”
He says he would be using hundreds of paintings done by Clint in the film. “I had met Clint’s parents at their home in Kochi recently. I was bowled over by the quality of the paintings by the child,” he says.
If the cold reception from the fans as well as the general audience was not enough, Mohanlal’s Onam release Peruchaazhi has now landed in the soup over a few politically incorrect dialogues in its script.
One of the dialogues delivered by Vijay Babu’s character in the film has been deemed derogatory of those hailing from Attappady. Though a few critics had raised the issue at the time of the release, things actually heated up two days back with director Biju Damodaran putting up a Facebook post against such ‘insensitiveness.’
He particularly held the superstar himself responsible for this and criticised him for promoting such regressive thinking.
Now, the actor’s fans, known to be intolerant of even mild criticism of the man, attacked Mr. Biju verbally on his page.
Some of the comments mirrored the ‘insensitive’ dialogue in the film, thus vindicating the director’s stand that such lines have a huge impact on the viewers.
The fans are of the opinion that the star cannot be held responsible for what the scriptwriter has written.
Last checked, the fans are still hunting him in packs, a la Sachin-Sharapova episode.
Some of the other sequences in the film, including that of the star creating racial tension for the sake of a few votes, have also been criticised for political incorrectness.
Though it has been explained away as a reflection of real life, critics have pointed at how it is all depicted in a positive light, as a sign of intelligence of the star.
Reporting by P.K. Ajith Kumar and S.R. Praveen