Introduction
There was an article about a child in Assam taking the precious
belongings of its family to safety using a bamboo-made raft and a bamboo stick.
This snap was taken during the great Assam floods that ravaged the region. This
had moved the minds of people across the country, forcing the Mollywood
director Jayaraj to take cognizance of this event and make a film on it to
highlight the plights of the flood-ravaged people in our country. Incidentally,
the film Ottaal became a huge hit among the audience despite the fact that it had no
element of a commercial movie. The Mollywood director dedicated the film to his
mother and the child on whom it was based. Moreover, the actor was moved by the
courage and dedication shown by the child in the face of the calamity, which is
so much lacking in the present-day kids.
Malayalam Film Industry
The Malayalam film industry, often called as Mollywood, has
seen the emergence of flicks of high value in the past. This is mainly due to
the presence of movie directors who think differently. They look for events in
the society that are closely watched. Whenever the filmmakers come across one
such event, they embark on film making. Moreover, these flicks are made using
the shoestring budget. Most often these flicks have either second-rung artists
or fresh faces enacting different roles. Despite these constraints, they garner
required support from among the audience in good numbers. This happens because
the filmmakers are able to find out the true stories that affect the society
most. In contrast, directors from other language film industries across the
country go by what sells the most in the Box Office.
Malayalam Film Ottaal
This Malayalam flick is based on
the life of an Assamese child Ashidul who dared the odds to safely move the
most precious possessions of his family – three Goats – to safety using
a locally assembled raft. This dare-devil oaring of the raft across the swollen
Brahmaputra River was photographed by an Assamese photographer Ritu Raj Konwar working with the Hindu as a local correspondent. Based
on this photograph, an article was written and published a few months ago this
year (2015). The boy soon became the embodiment of suffering of the flood
victims in the state of Assam. The movie director Jayaraj happened to read this
article and see the photograph. He was so moved by the commitment and
dare-devil attitude of the child that he decided to make a flick on the commendable
deed of the child. The film went on to bag the Golden Peacock for the best
environmental film and another award for the best adaptive screenplay in the
recently concluded International Film Festival of Kerala in Thiruvananthapuram.
Before this, this film was screened in other film festivals and received
critical appreciations from both the movie lovers and critics alike.
Film Director’s Gesture
The Assamese child’s dedication to the family,
resourcefulness and courage inspired the director Jayaraj to script a movie on
him. Moreover, the ace director wanted to highlight the environmental impact the
flooding brings through this flick. He also looks at the causes that led to the
flooding of the river. The success he got by portraying the plight of the child
forced him to think of some ways to reward the child for its exemplary courage
and dedication. Hence, he contacted the photographer who took the snap of the
child to find its roots. The child Ashidul is from a small village Kuchiani of
Morigaon district of Assam. With the local help, the director took pains to
travel to this small village to see the child in person and hand over a token
amount and the picture frame of the child oaring through the swollen
Brahmaputra River. Moreover, the filmmaker has offered to take care of the
education of the child as long as he remains in the academic field. Through a
Non-governmental Organization (NGO) based in Assam, he has also decided to
support the whole village by mobilizing the corpus. The director has shown what
the social responsibility is. After reading this story, please feel free to
support the deserving people.
