KOCHI: With the rising number of crimes against women, sexual harassment of young girls and exploitation of school students in the name of love, Odessa Movies is all set to release its fourth documentary Mortuary of Love on December 5. script and direction C V Sathyan.
Odessa Movies, launched by veteran film director John Abraham, will screen the film at street corners and in schools after its formal release on Saturday at Vadakara.
The 45 minute film has been produced with funds donated by lovers of Odessa’s earlier films - Amma Ariyan, Ithrayum Yadhabhagam (about the life of poet A Ayyappan) and Vettayadapetta Manassu which depicts the life of constable Ramachandran Nair who had shot dead Naxalite Varghese and is haunted with guilt. Odessa’s maiden film was Amma Ariyan, which was directed by John Abraham himself. This is Sathyan’s third film for Odessa. “It was a good decision to collect the funds from film lovers rather than from foreigners and other institutions,” he said.
“Mortuary of Love follows the tradition started by the great director John Abraham. He is the first person to raise funds from art lovers for shooting. It was done for his first film Amma Ariyan and we followed the same.” The film focuses on the sordid world of sexual exploitation of young girls who are trapped in the name of fake love, abducted, persecuted and who finally kill themselves. The film also attempts to expose politicians, priests and the socalled ‘love marriages’ which are arranged to achieve publicity or for nefarious goals.
The crew spent two years to shoot the documentary in locations in Kochi, Kozhikode, Malappuram and Thrissur. The completion of the shoot of the movie coincided with the 25th death anniversary of John Abraham and the silver jubilee of the film Amma Ariyan.
This is the first documentary in the state which conceptualises the theme of sordid sexual abduction and for the main cast, Sathyan has chosen individuals whose lives were similar to that of the characters they portray.” If a man kills his wife’s lover in the film, the actor too would have actually done such a crime and undergone imprisonment for the crime. For other roles too, we found such characters and actors for perfection,” he said. The donation drive for the documentary was formally inaugurated by poet Koothattukulam Mary with a donation of Rs 1,000 for its cost of production in 2007 at a function held at Ernakulam.
Jayadevan has penned the lyrics for the film. Njaralath Hari Govindan acts and sings. Gazal singer Pushpavathy sings a poem penned by Akka Maha Devi, famous Kannada poet. The poems by Akka Maha Devi has been used as a background in the film. The music has been done by Harinarayanan, K J Jayaprakash is the assistant director and Murali Panikker the cameraman. Dr Prasad has done the editing while the technical editing has been by Hemanth Harshan.
Poet A Ayyapan, cameraman Sunny Joseph, C S Venkiteshwaran, Kareepuzha Sreekumar, director Pradeep Nair, poet Sebastian and Madhu master will be present at its formal release on Saturday.
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