Raazim Althaf hates romance in short films. He feels it is waste of a powerful medium. “Short film is an effective platform to drive home a message. It must be put to better use.” The visual communication student of SRM University was in the city to screen his film, Nizhalin Nijam at the Avtar short film festival, held at GRD College of Science. It was about a man’s trauma when his lover has an abortion. “It was inspired from a personal incident,” he says.
The festival, organised by the School of Communication, saw 15 film makers from Cochin, Chennai, Kannur, and Coimbatore. Muse, directed by Kannan RK, followed the life of a prostitute, Maithili, who aspires to be an actress. She is reflective, extremely well-read and is a far cry from the stereotyped depictions in Indian cinema. “I named her Maithili because I wanted people to connect her to Sita’s image. Sita had one husband and desire was immaterial for her. Even though Maithili has many lovers, she too has no desires,” says Kannan who is a former student of Kumaraguru College.
In college, he could never concentrate on his studies because his head was filled with the thought of cinema all the time, says Kannan. “I was known as “the guy with the DSLR”. I learnt more of cinema than engineering in college.”
Internet is his film school, says Kannan. “Google is great and long live Facebook! I subscribe to all film related pages; especially the Taste of Cinema. It helps me learn the techniques of the masters.”
Kannan says his idols are Gautam Vasudev Menon and Martin Scorsese. Even though he admires the craft of Western film makers, he feels Tamil short film makers must not compromise on Tamil culture. “We must adopt foreign styles but stick to our regional culture.”
The competition also featured advertisements. Chennai based film student, Aravindh B’s film on child adoption, bagged the Best Ad award. “I wanted to make a video which carried a social message,” says the studentfrom Chennai. Aravindh brought out this film with the help of his friends. “We worked with Broken Candle Foundation, a trust that helps children, and released it on YouTube. Youtube is a great launch pad for young film makers.”
There has been a huge boom in the short film making scene after Facebook and Twitter, says Arun Kumar V S, another contestant who runs Prakrit Kala, a film production house in Sai Baba Colony. “Initially it was a struggle to get clients for our firms, but now we get calls from the corporates who use videos as a way to advertise. People prefer short films to power point presentations in official meetings.”
His team’s IFB Bocca Legends of Tomorrow won the best documentary award. Arun wrote the script for the film and co-edited it with his director. The film profiles five children who are exceptionally talented in football and have been selected for the IFB league matches. “Some of these kids came from under-privileged backgrounds and could never have dreamt of becoming a football player. It was a wonderful experience and we wanted to capture the football frenzy in places such as Calicut and Pune.”
Says R. Rathish, a final-year visual communication student and organiser of the festival, “Both the students and the college administration pooled in money. Over the years the number of visual communication students has also gone up. So this year, we could organise it in a grander way.” Music composer, Karthik Raja, cinematographer, Krishnan Vasanth and editor, Leo John Paul, judged the films.
Krishnan said that youngsters are very comfortable with the visual medium. “And, all of them are hooked to this concept of putting a twist in the end,” he laughs.
Krishnan was reminded of his college days in Loyola as a visual communication student. “I had met K Balachandar in one of the workshops. And, he guided us on how to use simple techniques to communicate our ideas. ‘De-clutter…take off the frills’, he urged us. I want these young film makers also to keep this in mind. They have slick gadgets but they should focus on communicating their ideas in simple and honest ways. Technology should be just an aid to do that.”
And the award goes to…
Best Editing | Muse |
Best Cinematography | Ettukaali |
Best Music Director | Haiku Nee |
Best Documentary | Legends of Tomorrow |
Best Ad film | Child Adoption |
Best film | 3G |
