Forever in search of that homeland

Shoma A Chatterji

No one who meets the unassuming and modest Malayalam film director Dr Bijukumar Damodaran can ever guess that he is a three-time National Award winner. A self-taught filmmaker, his movies have been screened at international film festivals like Cannes, Montreal, Shanghai, Cairo, New York, Telluride, Tehran, Jeonju, etc. His latest film Tree Under the Sun (Veyil Marangal) was selected from among 3,964 entries from 112 countries at the recent Shanghai International Film Festival. Out of the 14 films selected to compete for the Golden Goblet, this film, the only entry from India, won the Outstanding Artistic Achievement Award at the biggest film festival in China.

The 108-minute film explores the reality of forced migration faced by a small poor family in Kerala living on the banks of a river. The river turns turbulent without notice and washes away the shacks of poor dwellers living on its banks.

The film treats migration at different levels. The family comprises husband, wife and their 12-year-old son. The three manage to eke out a hand-to-mouth existence. The poor Dalit family has to suffer from oppression at many levels. The river’s moods decide whether they will survive or have to seek newer pastures. But does the forced migration change their lives for the better?

“My aim was to show how families of daily wage workers struggle each day without reprieve, and how they are deprived of any chance to rebel or protest as they are already pushed against the wall,” says Bijukumar.

The film, Bijukumar’s 10th, is brilliantly cinematographed and throws up a rich canvas of moving frames. When the couple and their son move to Himachal Pradesh to work in an apple orchard, they must not only bear the exploitation but also the rigours of an extremely cold and harsh climate. The film opens on a frame entirely covered with a sheet of water, the sound of its lapping filling the soundtrack. The camera moves back to catch a boat from a top angle shot rowing away. The camera closes in and one finds a young boy rowing the boat. He is the son of the couple whose hut has been washed away in the floods. “The film has been shot over one and a half years and covers three different seasons. The location was mostly around Manali,” says Bijukumar.

Along with Saritha Kukku, award-winning Malayalam actor Indrans, who has worked in films across myriad genres, especially comedy, excels in the lead role of the migrant labourer.

There is a touching scene in a village school where uniformed children are being taught. The 12-odd families, who have lost everything, are called by an officer to give out their names, addresses, Aadhaar card numbers and other identification proof to the officer. “We have lost everything so where can we get the documents from?” says one of them. The National Anthem begins in the background for the students. The villagers stand up to pay their ovation. What a scene!

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