Toiling at countless construction sites are faceless manual labourers. With no specific identity, they are often considered machines, even by those who employ them, and forgotten for ever once the work is over, even if it is a monumental edifice like the Burj Khalifa.
‘Machines,’ a silent short film by C.D. Sajith Kumar, a mechanical engineer in Qatar for more than eight years, is a poignant take on the “hopelessness” of manual labourers in a foreign land.
The 12-minute movie, which has received a special mention from the jury of the recently concluded Bangalore International Short Film Festival, is an attempt to depict the forced “fall of man” to the state of machine, says Sajith Kumar, a native of Karaparamba in Kozhikode.
The dehumanising conditions in labour camps and the distressing atmosphere in which people work in expansive worksites, including in big cities in the Gulf countries, are common knowledge. The contributions of these “unknown” labourers go unacknowledged even as they end up sick and invalid by the end of their lives, like abandoned machines in a junk yard. “It’s this thought that triggered ‘Machines’ inside me,” says Sajith Kumar, who conceived and directed the movie.
Drawing a parallel between the life of a faceless labourer and the excavator, which he works with at a construction site in a desert, the movie strikes a chord with the viewer. In the absence of dialogues, it speaks volumes about the descent of man to that of a meaningless machine to eke out a living.
Powerful imagery
Using powerful imagery and an apt background score to drive the point home, it also draws a stark contrast between the flamboyant life in the city that is built from his hard labour and the isolation of old age that the labourer walks into.
Completely short in Qatar, the movie has been made by Campus Oaks, an entertainment company launched by a group of alumni from NSS Engineering College, Palakkad. Campus Oaks is all set to produce its next work, a feature film with Tamil actor Nasar in the lead. ‘Fragrance,’ which is woven around the conflict-ridden end of a retired judge’s life, is mainly aimed at the festival circuit. “We plan to begin the shoot once the details are finalised,” says Sajith Kumar, who is returning to Quatar on Friday after attending the Bengaluru film festival.
