Every now and then political films that take the extreme Left view ignite interest, public fury, and sometimes even face the wrath of the Censor Board. One such Malayalam film that went through all this and the director even issued death threats is Yagam. The director, Sivan, faced threats to his life, was forced to shift his location and complete the shoot at an undisclosed place.
The main reason for the objection to this film from extreme Leftists was that the film justified Brahmins, the social hierarchy, the way they subjugated the class below them in the social ladder. Besides they accused the film of trying to cover up what they thought was their cruel history.
Sivan justifies his film saying, “My attempt was to convey a message that violence was not a remedy to eradicate social evils. I was trying to say a story of some innocent, helpless people who were destined to sacrifice their lives in the name of an ideology.”
After his well-received film Swapnam , Sivan was on the lookout for a story that would uphold the Gandhian principle of non-violence. He discussed this with N.V. Krishna Warrier and M.T. Vasudevan Nair. Sivan wanted to collaborate with MT in writing the script but the writer was so busy with so many other things that he asked Sivan to consider a short story Kathatha Karthika Vilakku , by N. Mohanan, which MT thought would make for a good film script.
Mohanan was known to Sivan and was a frequent visitor to Sivan’s studio in Thiruvananthapuram. When Sivan put MT’s suggestion to Mohanan he said that he had already given his story to someone else. But Mohanan resolved the issue straight away. He bought back the rights to his story and gave the same to Sivan. Along with K.S. Namboodiri, Sivan began writing the script.
Kerala, during this time, was in the grip of Naxal attacks.
News about open trial, capital punishment, executions were reported from across the State. One such attack took place at Kilimanoor, near Thiruvananthapuram. The police unleashed counter steps to curb the threat, while some ‘intellectuals’ clandestinely backed the Naxals.
It was at this time that news about Sivan’s film and a hint of the theme appeared in the newspapers. This angered the Naxals. Sivan got death threats and some even said that they would stall the shoot of the film. However, Sivan decided to go ahead with his film. He went around scouting for locations. One such place he found to his liking was the forest area near the Neyyar Dam.
The threats went on unabated. Sivan knew that it would be foolish to defy them and shoot at a place accessible to the Naxals. He decided to shift the main location to Mannarasala, near Haripad. But when the threats persisted Sivan met the then Chief Minister K. Karunakaran asking for police protection at the locations.
Sivan gave a copy of the script to Karunakaran who read it, appreciated Sivan for the choice of theme and promised police protection if and when required.
Premji, Babu Naboodiri, Jalaja, Aranmula Ponnamma, Smitha, Aryad Goplakrishnan, Bhaskaran Nair, John Samuel, Narayanankutty, Nandakumar, Kalpana, Vijaya Lakshmi and Sanjeev were cast in various roles.
Sivan, who had a cousin brother working in the Special Branch of police was sent to the locations before the shoot began to ensure the safety of the cast and crew. Despite all this Sivan felt the pressure. A couple of his camera assistants quit following threats reducing the strength of the unit to hardly six.
Shooting at Veli and in a place near Madurai were even more risky. But Sivan managed to complete the shoot with the shadow of death threats looming over them.
Then came the next challenge - the Censor Board. The Board insisted that Sivan remove certain parts of the film, which was vital to the story. The film was then referred to the Revising Committee.
A scene that they wanted removed was one that showed hungry local students extending their hands before a few foreign students when they throw the remains of the imported food from the upper floor of a city college. Similarly, they also objected to some scenes that depicted raw violence. These scenes were mutilated.
“Due to this the film lost its soul and also the length required for a feature film. I was forced to add a poem by ONV Kurup to increase the length. Despite all this Yagam went on win several National and State awards,” says Sivan.
