KOCHI: A documentary on singer Vaikom Vijayalakshmi, directed by V K Subhash, was released here on Sunday. An august audience, including writer M K Sanu, music director Jerry Amaldev and Assistant Commissioner for Traffic Baby Vinod, attended the documentary release held at the Children’s Park. Vijayalakshmi has been suffering from an incurable form of blindness since birth.
The documentary, the first of its kind, explores the struggle that went into the making of the State Award-winning singer, who captured people’s hearts with her rendering. The documentary, deservedly, salutes the efforts of Muraleedharan and Vimala, Vijayalakshmi’s parents, who did everything they could to ensure that the rare talent of their daughter was not wasted simply because she is blind.
The documentary, which focuses largely on places in and around Vaikom where Vijayalakshmi grew up, also shed light on the many other talents Vijayalakshmi possesses, including her expertise in playing the rare musical instrument called Gayatriveena. However, the documentary does not feature an interview with Vijayalakshmi. Director Subhash said it was purposeful.
“We took a deviation from the conventional documentary methodology by not interviewing Vijayalakshmi for our production. It is a 17-minute documentary, and we thought it was better to focus more on the lesser known aspects of the singer, mainly the efforts made by her parents. In a way, we wanted this to be a tribute to her parents,” said Subhash.
He said the decision to release the documentary on July 27 was pre-planned. “It is the ‘World Parents’ Day’, and we thought releasing the documentary on that day would be an apt way to symbolically honour Vijayalakshmi’s parents,” he added.