THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After their short film ‘Neerthulliye Kaanaathaaya Divasam’ garnered accolades, the students of Sainik School Kazhakootam have come out with yet another ‘short’ marvel; ‘Mikhail Kandethiya Nidhi’, a film on ecology and agriculture.
The 14-minute film centres around Class VI student Mikhail who is a farming enthusiast. His intense desire to cultivate paddy in his school sets in motion a flurry of incidents to finally reveal Mikhail’s treasure.
The 200-acre campus of Sainik School has a significant portion of its land swathed in the agricultural pursuits of the students. Myriad varieties of vegetables and even paddy are cultivated by the students of the agro-club in the school and it was the students and their activities which inspired the story.“The agro-club was the inspiration for the story which is aimed at fostering a love for the earth and environment,” says Sandhya R, the school’s Malayalam teacher who has been helming the videography club for the past four years.
Although the film was shot in the Sainik School campus, the school depicted in the story is a fictional one. In the movie, Mikhail ardently wishes to cultivate paddy in his school. However, the students of the agro-club are lazy bums. Mikahil soon devises a plan to make his seniors till the land by concocting a lie that he had buried a treasure there. The plan works. And the rest is an emotional roller-coaster ride that Mikhail goes through and the treasure he finally finds.
The cast included Class VI and X students. Class VI student V Pranav essayed the role of main character Mikhail. The supporting roles were donned by students Nandana Krishna, Tom Chacko, Anand S, Hishan Nissar, Akash Krishnan, Shomin Shomon, Adwait M, Abhijith S Saju, Subham S Sagar, and Angath Gopal. The school’s mathematics teacher of the school Supriya Rani O K also acted in the film.
The editing was by Vaibhav Ratheesh and music by professional singer Anu Nagendranath. Deepak D Dev wielded the camera while the script and direction were by handled by Sandhya. Shot over three months during the time allocated for club activities, the movie was launched during the school’s videography club exhibition day, Kazhak Expo.
“The emphasis is on creating awareness about the marvels of nature among the children, bringing them closer to the environment and thereby reaching out to others as well. Through such initiatives, we also intend to develop the creative faculties of the students,” said Sandhya, who doesn’t have any formal training in movie-making and is solely driven by her passion for movies.The activities receive full support from the school principal Colonel A Rajiv. The film is presently being entered for various short film festivals.