Santosh George Kulangara is a trained cinematographer, known for his contribution to the field of education through his Labour India Educational Research Centre (LIERC). Kulangara felt strongly that we Indians were not only unaware of, but also had a few misconceptions about the travel to the moon that was conducted a few years back. (On November 14, 2008, India joined the select Lunar Club as a fourth member with its space mission Chandrayaan)
He felt that we as citizens of our nation should know more in detail about this mission that brought much honour to us. He thought that the best way to do this was in the form of a movie. This way, the complexity that surrounded the mission could be simplified for the sake of the common Indian. Is it a documentary or a commercial movie? “It cannot be classified as either. We can call it a feature film for it’s contents.” He says that 90 per cent of the movie is based on true incidents but ten per cent is fictitious. “This was to make the characters seem more realistic. Scientists are usually viewed as workaholics. I wanted the audience to feel connected to the characters and so we portray their emotions and family life as well. This makes the story more interesting and helps it move fast.”
The movie was mainly shot in studios at Kottayam. The team travelled to Udaipur, Delhi, Bengaluru, and a few villages in Kerala and many other locations. The movie took six months to be made and Kulangara says the team had to work extremely hard during these six months to make sure the visual effects, elaborate sets, props and costumes were nothing less than perfect.
The cast of the movie include all the principle architects of the actual Chandrayaan project who now play some of the major roles. Abdul Kalam’s character is played by Njakkad Raj, G Madhavan Nair by Sarath Kumar, Dr Annadurai by Nasser Latif. The rest of the cast includes P Baburaj and Mathew Abraham among others. “More than one thousand actors have played their roles in the making of the film,” says Kulangara. The movie will first be released in multiplexes nation-wide and then will move to smaller cities and finally to the villages of Kerala. “If there are no theatres in the villages we will make sure that facilities are set up for the people to watch the film,” he says. Another vital target audience is the young. “They are the future of tomorrow and they should be well aware of our country’s advancements in the field of technology,” he says.
It is also interesting to note that the movie hardly uses any simple computer graphics. The team has taken the harder route and used the latest technology to recreate launch pads and rockets.
The movie is expected to release in mid June this year. It will be screened across the country and will be translated into different languages as well. If the movie goes well, he plans to make more of the kind, he says. His goal as a filmmaker is “to make movies with a purpose,” that are not only entertaining but educating as well.
