Like many young Indians in the sixties and seventies, Perumbadavam Sreedharan grew up on beautifully illustrated translations of Russian tales for children and graduated to Russian classics by some of the finest writers in the world. In 1993, the noted author wrote Oru Sankeerthanam Pole ( Like a Psalm ), a novel about Dostoevsky’s affair with his stenographer Anna Snitkina. The book has been a hit, with more than two-and-a-half lakh copies sold, 77 reprints, and translations as well.
Shiny Jacob Benjamin, award-winning filmmaker, says that when a group of friends were discussing the influence of Russian literature on writers and readers in Kerala, Ratheesh C. Nair, director of the Russian Cultural Centre in the city, came up with a concept for a film based on Sreedharan’s experience with the book. When Paul Zacharia agreed to write the script for the documentary, Benjamin was convinced that she would be able to turn it into a film. And when Baby Mathew agreeing to come on board as a producer, all obstacles were erased. Filming for In Return: Just a Book began in earnest in 2015, with veteran K.G. Jayan as cinematographer. It was shot in St. Petersburg and Kerala.
Benjamin saw the film as an opportunity to explore the creative aspects that linked the two writers across barriers of time, space, language and culture. “One has to remember that this was a work of fiction inspired by Perumbadavam Sir’s reverence and admiration for Dostoevsky and it was written by someone who had never travelled to Russia. [He] had written the book while living in a little village in Kerala.”
The novel is about 21 days in Dostoevsky’s life when he was writing The Gambler . “It was a particularly trying period: he was heavily in debt and would have had to pay a heavy penalty if he failed to complete his book within the stipulated period. Perumbadavam Sir focussed on the difficult stage and wrote a moving novel that has stood the test of time.”
The structure is what she calls ‘docu-fiction’; “or you could say it was my attempt at visualising magical realism. The film has Perumbadavam Sir walking in the footsteps of his favourite author, imagining Dostoevsky’s characters coming alive in the streets of St. Petersburg and visiting places that figure in the writer’s works and life.” While Sreedharan appears as himself in the film — “The movie has been made in such a way that it feels that the entire journey could be a dream, a figment of his imagination” — the other characters are played by Russian actors. Benjamin says she cherishes the images of the author’s emotional reaction as he visited Dostoevsky’s study and tomb. Sreedharan says he enjoyed the filming process.
Finally, a pilgrimage
Nearly 21 years after he wrote the book, Sreedharan released a new edition at the house where Dostoevsky lived in St. Petersburg. The 77-year-old author says it was an emotional and creative high point in his life. “In my youth, Russia was my dream destination; not the Russia of Lenin and Stalin, but the Russia of Tolstoy, Pushkin, Gorky and Dostoevsky. And Dostoevsky was my favourite author.”
The prolific Malayalam author says it was a dream-come-true to travel to his idol’s homeland and walk the same paths that Dostoevsky had walked, visit the places where his famous characters lived and just be in St. Petersburg. “After that dream-like trip, life goes on an even keel for me,” he says. “But I felt as much at home there as in my village in Perumbadavam or in my home in Thiruvananthapuram.”
In Return: Just a Bookwill be shown in the Indian Panorama section at the International Film Festival of India in the documentary category.
