Starring: Konthiyattu Krishna Kaimal, Mani Lal, Thomas, Lakshmi Raman, Viji Prasad and villagers of Moncombu Screenplay and Dialogue: Bharata Njarakkal, Murali Nair Production Design:Shambhavi Kaul Editing: Lalitha Krishnan Director of Photography: M.J. Radhakrishnan Location Sound and Sound Design: Madhu Apsara Music: Kavalam Narayanappanikkar Executive Producer: Preeya Nair Produced and Directed by: Murali Nair

Synopsis

Umprakkal, the dictator of Tharavilakkadu (also reigning over the neighbouring Tharisuparampu), gifts a dog, Appu, to an elderly couple Koran and Kurumpa, who look after his interests in Tharisuparampu. When the dog bites a boy and the boy dies, there is a social outcry against him. He is branded a rabies-infected agent of Umprakkal. Janakan, the new ruler of Tharisuparampu, takes up the fight against the dog, which now assumes the proportions of an international crisis. Conditions are now set for the lucrative games of war and trade of Umprakkal. How these games destroy the backbone of Tharisuparampu forms the rest of the narrative.

When Murali Nair's previous film Maranasimhasanam - The Throne of Death won the Camera d'Or at Cannes in 1999, his initial reaction was -

"I am happy and confident now. I know I can make one more film."

Today that one more film has been made. Murali has just concluded the shooting of his second feature film - Oru Pattiyude Divasam - A Dog's Day. Upperstall met him even as he was in the thick of postproduction work on the film.

The film could be perhaps described as a political fairy tale, not really a satire, says Murali. Though there is a basic form of narrative, the film really goes beyond that. It is an indictment of globalisation and privatisation. To quote him,

"The increasing tendency of the USA to interfere in the affairs of the second and third world for its own interests of war and trade made me think of a second film."

Murali hails from Anandapuram village in Thrissur district of Kerala . His father Krishnan Nair worked in a private company in Mumbai and mother Saradamma is a retired school teacher. Murali took a post-graduate degree in geology. For a brief while he was a geologist in Kerala. But he quit the job, travelled all over the state and then boarded the train to Mumbai.

"I wanted to study direction,Yet, I didn't want to spend three years at the Pune Film Institute. To get a job and then get into the film industry was my dream."

After working in a private firm for a brief while, Murali joined evening classes for direction at St. Xavier's Institute of Communication (XIC). He dropped out of the course but not before befriending Bollywood director Pawan Kaul who was making a film Chor Aur Chand on which he worked. After a stint as an Assistant Director in the mega serial Chandrakanta, Murali made a black and white short film Tragedy of an Indian Farmer based on Malayalam poet Changampuzha's poem ÔVazhakula in 1993. It was his first independent venture and it bagged the national award for the best short film. Following a stint with Mani Kaul in Cloud Doors, Murali made his second short film Coronations. Shot in Mumbai, the film explored the impact of advanced military technology in a third world town. The censor board withheld the film's certificate for a while objecting to the heavy violence in it. However the film was screened in reputed film festivals in Europe such as Leipzig and Berlin.

It was really with his third short film Oru Neenda Yatra - a long journey that Murali began to get noticed. The film, made in 1996, depicted the communalisation of our society through the images of a group of people in a bus journey. It was screened in the short film section of the Cannes festival becoming the first Indian short film to get the honour. That year, Murali also got an offer in an Indo-Argentine joint venture Unicorn directed by Pablo Caesar.

The crowning glory for Murali of course was Maranasimhasanam (1999) . The film lampooned the World Bank and American aid to third world countries. Krishnan, a poor labourer in a Kerala village, is arrested by the police at the behest of a rich man. A whole lot of crimes are foisted on him and he is awarded a death sentence, a unique one at that. He would get the 'honour' of dying sitting on a special electric chair brought to the country as part of a World Bank loan package! Following the Camera d'Or, Murali, who is now London based, directed a 13 part series called First Taste exploring the life of teenagers in various countries and cultures and a 10 part series Miracles of Faith examining the effects of miracles in people's lives in different countries all over the world, both for Channel 5 in UK. In Novemder last year he commenced work on Oru Pattiyude Divasam.

The film, of approximately 90 minutes duration, is based on an original screenplay and was shot in a start to finish schedule of 20 days in Moncombu village of Kuttanadu Region of Allapey in Kerala. The film is shot mainly in the exteriors apart from a couple of indoor scenes using no lights at all. The approach is kept basic and simple keeping sync sound in mind, says Murali. The film largely uses unknown actors and villagers from Moncombu village itself. With the shooting taking place in their houses and the entire film crew staying with them, the villagers of Moncombu became totally involved with the film. Says Kunjamma, a poor housewife, who is also in the film:

"We consider this film our own. "

Reacting to his approach to the shooting Murali says that he has never deliberately tried a particular technical device or knowingly experimented with form. He shoots the way he sees it instinctively and then it is up to the viewer really to decide - if he has seen anything new and novel in the film.

Murali has produced Oru Pattiyude Divasam himself. Following the award at Cannes and the success of Maranasimhasam (the film had a theatrical release in France and New York besides being picked up by various TV channels around the world not forgetting the various awards won and the festival circuit of course), there were plenty of offers to direct films with financing readily available for him from major film companies like 20th Century Fox, says Murali but they all came with certain strings attached. All of them had their own notions about India. Therefore, talking of making a film based on India meant making it according to their prejudices. To quote Murali:

"I wanted total creative freedom to make the film my way and since I had made some money with the previous film, I decided to produce this film myself. Also, when I make a film against the evils of globalisation, I should see to it that the process is also free from the evils of globalisation. Otherwise, there is no point making it."

Oru Pattiyude Divasam is expected to be ready by the end of March, 2001.