THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Dr Gouri Lekshmy had a story in her mind. Once, she got an opportunity to present it before director Kamal in a condensed form in two minutes. On his advice, she made a film-script on her own. Besides this, the ayurveda medic who resides at Nalanchira in the city, does not claim any experience in the field of film-making. Still she embarked on a mission to try and communicate some contemporary subjects through her short film ‘Jayahe’. The 15-minute short film was premiered in the city recently.
The film was different that it did not have any dialogues. “Human emotions, especially when at the extremes, are not be explained with the help of words. They are better understood visually,” she says.
While setting out on her maiden venture in the reel world, she wanted to make a film that would appeal to the masses. The most difficult part, Gouri says, was conveying the ideas in her mind through the visual language.
“I was worried about convincing the audience the emotional depth of the experiences I was trying to portray. Music, therefore, had a significant part to play in the film,” she says.
‘Jayahe’ interlinks six different topics - maternal affection, patriotism, the divide between the upper and lower strata of society, bonding between humans and pets, willpower of women and values of literacy.
In the selection of characters, Gouri was keen on being realistic. She drew real life characters into the film from various places to match the plot. “For the film, we needed two children aged four to enact the role of kids hailing from the lower and upper classes of society. I searched for them in similar surroundings.”
The director picked two children, one from an ‘anganwadi’ and another from a kindergarten in the city. “The child who enacted the role of the kid from the slums wore the same clothes on all the three days pictured in the film,” she says. The film was shot entirely in the city.
For all film-makers, one of the herculean tasks is to find somebody to shell out money for it. In this matter Gouri was fortunate as her mother was ready to fund the project. “In my opinion, one should look for a film producer only if we have proved ourselves in the field. Whether my first work is good or bad, I should be responsible for that,” she says.
Gouri often scribbles down her thoughts as prose and poems. “I write when I become too sentimental. Writing, for me, is like giving vent to my emotions,” she says.
Now she is waiting whether her film will be selected to be screened at the fifth International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala to be held in the city in June.