It’s a written affair!

Young video editor Vignesh Rajashob’s short movie Chu Poo Vaa narrates the lockdown days of two unlikely protagonists — a pen and a pencil
It’s a written affair!

KOCHI: Lockdown was a hard period for people around the globe. But, it was also a time when many artists tested their creative limit to beat the blues. Thiruvananthapuram-native Vignesh Rajashob, a freelance video editor by profession, has created a unique bilingual short film titled Chu Poo Vaa aka Chuvappu Pookkal Vaadaarilla. The four-minute video released on his YouTube channel Media Kalipps is void of human characters. The film directed, edited, scripted and produced by Vignesh is the story of a pen and pencil abandoned by their owner during the pandemic. As the digital revolution takes over, the pen and pencil leads a life of solitude inside the drawer.

Chu Poo Vaa was born when Vignesh found his favourite pen inside his table drawer. “I had bought it a few years ago. One day, I accidentally came across the pen and felt like it thanked me for taking it out. My experience as a vlogger and a podcaster helped me film the short video. I did not have any references to look, as the lead roles are handled by  objects. This is not an animation  or cartoon film as I have used real pen and pencil to narrate the story,” says Vignesh.

The short movie features Mittu, the pen; Dingriri, the pencil; Minnu as a sharpener and Tinki the mobile phone. The dialogues for the characters are also dubbed by Vignesh with various tones. The funny interactions between the characters narrate how mobile phones have become a villain and eliminated the usage of pens and pencils among people, especially children. “My nephew Kichu has a weird habit of sharpening both sides of his pencil for fun. Thus, I inserted that sad story of pencil too in a comic way. My friend Syed Sulaiman helped me dub the dialogue for the Tamil version,” he says.

 Vignesh also wants to highlight the importance of writing with  your hand through the video. “I drew and wrote the storyboard using a pen and pencil. No matter how advanced we become in terms of digital media, one can never forget the importance of using a pen and pencil,” says Vignesh.

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