Synopsis:
Jeevan and Nitin, two youngsters from
the IT industry, go to a village named Vattapara
in Kerala. Jeevan, who holds a ancestral property
in the village, is torn between the lucrative
offers from the realtors in the village and his
grandmother’s anguish in selling off an
age old property. Nitin, on the other hand, suffers
from the pangs of split parenthood, is bored of
the city, his work schedules and wants to ‘explore’
so as to keep his alive. He joins hand with Kutikrishna
Kurup, a retired headmaster and Vanitha, an activist
who along with other villagers decide to oppose
a big realtor who motivates the villagers to join
him. The real estate boom is given different colour
by this company which uses the name of Che Guevera
to promote its campaigns. Jeevan takes an instant
liking to Vanita but sees her more attracted to
Nitin. Howeevr, Nitin declares to Vanitha that
they can be good friends and nothing more as he
loves everyone. The real estate company voices
its concern to Jeevan about Nitin’s involvement
in the protest campaigns. Kuttikrishna Kurup has
managed to send a query to the authorities and
start an investigation regarding the company’s
entry into the village. Nitin asks Jeevan not
to sell the property, Jeevan cannot hide his inner
feelings vis-à-vis Vanita and has a facedown
with him. The real estate company decides to make
its presence elt by organizing cultural affair
in order to promote its campaign in a more vigorous
manner. The investigations from the side of the
police are on. Kurup Master succumbs to a heart
attack. Nitin decides to leave. Vanitha and Jeevan
come together.
Fiction was something close to my heart since
my pre-FTII days and even when after FTII when
I was first an assistant editor and then an assistant
director. I worked under Mani Kaul, Kumar Shahani,
Ketan Mehta and other FTII seniors of mine in
various documentaries and scripting assignments.
I guess I did it partly also to go through the
routine of doing the industry rounds and ‘make
contacts.’ All’s well till you actually
get to do what you want!
 My
journey with this film Anthiponvettom,(The
Twilight Light) began when I was editing
The Last Monk, a English feature film
directed by Sudipto Sen. I met its producer, N
Shiva Rao, in Kerala in September 2006, narrated
the concept to him, which he liked. The initial
idea was to shoot the film on 16mm but then as
we discussed the other modalities like release
options, we settled on 35mm cinemascope.The storyidea
was mine and my co-screenplay writer was Dr SP
Ramesh, a psychiatrist by profession, a film enthusiast
and good old associate of the late G Aravindan).
Like all filmmakers, I wanted the film to reach
theatres, rather than only the “sensible
audience” which meant having ‘saleable’
actors in the film. The search for cast began,
the endless narrations, playing the waiting game
while having yes lengthy mobile conversations
to explain to each and everyone what I was doing
and how I was plan to go about it.
So December 2006 to April 2007 saw me, an FTII
graduate, trying to put together a ‘commercial
film’ though till now my name was associated
with only the so-called ‘arty directors’.
I met a whole lot of actors (Mukesh, Siddique,
Sreenivasan just to name a few) and while some
appreciated the script, others had doubts about
a new production house entering Malayalam cinema
and even about me. “A director who has
not been a associate to any of the big directors
in Malayalam cinema attempting a Malayalam commercial
film?” they all kept repeating.
Thus by the time we could finally zero on the
lead final cast, It was decided that May 27, 2007
would be the first day of shoot for my first film.
HM Ramachandra (Rama), a National award winner
was my cinematographer, I know Rama from my FTII
days and was inclined to work with him after seeing
his brilliant work in Girish Kaseravalli’s
Dweepa. The concept of sync sound is
yet to take prevalence in the Malayalam film industry
so that option was out.
 The
first schedule had Saiju, Arun, Rachna Shah as
the IT people and we shot scenes and sequences
around them, and though I got a first-hand experience
of ‘normal’ filming problems –
delays, locations getting cancelled at the last
minute etc., in hindsight I think I can say that
things actually moved pretty smoothly. The July
schedule was the real challenge for me - with
all the well- known character artists of Malayalam
cinema, Nedumudi Venu, Jagati Sreekumar, Jagadeesh
and so on joining the shoot. I had to maintain
my respect for them, yet at the same time ensure
that I got what I wanted. Nedumudi Venu and Jagati
and Jagadish really helped me while instructing
the younger artists, and I should be grateful
to them. They are undoubtedly the best in Malayalam
cinema regarding their sense of comic timing and
improvization. The ease, with which they take
in the scene, be it dialogues or emotions or getting
the co-actors to perform that much better is an
experience one can never forget.
Since we were shooting in July, the monsoon was
in full swing, I had to adjust my shoot. Certain
scenes had to be skipped or shot differently,
others trimmed – All coupled with usual
production problems. But fortunately and most
importantly for us, the rain chose be keep off
from my locations till 4 pm everyday ensuring
we stayed right on schedule! The 30 days filming
schedule was tough and packed, but then that’s
how things are and especially so for a film that
doesn’t have a huge budget.
The film demanded a Hindi party song in the city,
so we got Sunidhi Chauhan to sing it with Amitabh
Verma, again a colleague from the FTII, as the
lyricist and Amit Trivedi as the music director.
The other songs were recorded in Chennai with
renowned Music Director, M Jayachandran.
I had already cut the first schedule scenes with
my editor, Mahesh before the July schedule, so
with additional material coming in, the rest of
the edit happened pretty fast. I was not the editor
and was on the other side of the table this time
realizing that the law is the same for everyone.
The same ahs and ohs were there - we
could have done this, we could have done that.
The dubbing took a bit longer than the expected
time because of the Onam festival and also with
certain artistes getting busy with their schedules.
The rest of the Post-production was done in Prasad
Chennai till the first print of the film, the
first copy, came out.
As I watched the first copy with DTX mix being
screened, I bit my nails, I grunted and seethed
with anger at myself at places but also realizing
that sitting through the screening was a very
humbling experience of knowing oneself. The big
magic of what one calls ‘cinema’ does
not come alive just like that. It involves giving
it more than 100%. I am not sure whether I gave
that much, but I am certain about one thing, I
did it with utmost sincerity, and I tried to involve
everyone the same way as well. Inside of me, I
felt that urge which took me to FTII to learn
filmmaking finally bear fruit and I hope the film
is appreciated when it hits the theatres in January
2008.
Narayanan AV is an alumnus of the Film
and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune
with specialization in Film Editing, 1997. He
has edited various documentaries and an English
Feature film, The Last Monk. Anthiponvettom
is his first feature film.
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