THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : The film Swami Anandatheerthan: Nisheshiyude Aatmashakti starts with a question: Does history even know of Swami Anandatheerthan, who lived in the century just over?
The answer raises more questions — pointedly on why history does not have records of some persons or incidents. Were they unintentionally overlooked or were they purposely neglected?
The film, a docu-fiction on the life of Swami Anandatheerthan, a significant figure in Kerala history who fought furiously against caste system, was released on January 21 at Bharath Bhavan in Thiruvananthapuram.
Directed by Bindu Sajan and Abhijit Narayanan, the film takes viewers on the remarkable journey that Swami Anandatheerthan’s life was.
“The film will fill the gap in history that has bypassed Swami Anandatheerthan’s contribution to Kerala soceity,” says Pushpavathi P R, singer and vice chairperson of the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi.
Kunhikrishnan Mangattu, a disciple of Swami Anandatheerthan, says the Swami Anandatheertha Trust has written to the chief minister to include the story of the social leader in academic texts.
This idea for the film began from a search to discover the name of the father of K P Sasikumar, retired joint registrar of the University of Calicut.
“Initially known as Chakkan, his official documents listed him as Mohanachandra Guptan, a name usually associated with people from the higher caste. Confused by this, Sasikumar started investigating and stumbled upon the story of Anandatheerthan, who had changed his father’s name,” says Kunhikrishnan, also the producer of the film.
Sasi Kumar shared the idea for the film with his friends Bindu and Sajan.
Bindu expresses a sense of emotional connect, as she says, “After Sasi Kumar discussed with us, I read a lot of about him. The more I learnt about him, I was awewstruck. I feel a film or documentary cannot capture his work in total. Swami Anandatheerthan was much more than this, and his work, much wider.”
The film combines the memories of people who have direct experience with Swami Anandatheerthan, his former students, their relatives, members of the Swami Anandatheertha Trust, and residents of Mangulam village in Tamil Nadu.
There is some fiction too, drawing inspiration from the book Smaranakal: Swami Anandhatheerthan, written by Swami Anandatheerthan himself, and hence the film gets termed a docu-fiction.
“Collecting data for the film was very challenging due to the limited availability of photos and videos. But we could know him through the experiences of others. Our project gained momentum, and the excitement shot up notably during our Tamil Nadu visit, where we found people still speaking about Swami Anandatheerthan,” Bindu says.
In the early part of the last century, Swami Anandatheerthan began the Sree Narayana Vidyalaya in Payyannur and helped hundreds of Dalit children, including orphans, build a new life.
He also actively protested against untouchability. Tragically, his fight was cut short by his demise following the protest he launched alone in the early part of 20th century at Guruvayur temple for entry of people from the lower castes.
“The paths followed by Swami Anandatheerthan, who started his journey as a disciple of Mahatma Gandhi and Sri Narayana Guru, mirror the history of Kerala’s struggle against untouchability,” Madhupal Kannambathu, filmmaker and writer, who officially released the film.
The docu-fiction will be screened across all major cities, villages, and educational institutions in Kerala.