Though the pandemic has caused most of the film industry’s works to come to a standstill, film festivals have been on full swing, thanks to online streaming facilities. Upama (Simile), an 80-minute long movie directed by Neyyattinkara-native S S Jishnu Dev, have been making its presence felt in many of them, winning many awards for exquisitely capturing the beauty of villages around Neyyattinkara.
The story revolves around the life of 30-year-old Appu, who was born with developmental issues. Everything around his life changes when a group of youngsters come to his village to excavate a kavu, which holds a myth about a buried treasure. According to Jishnu, the Appu’s character is symbolic of the nature.“Nature is being exploited by humans in many ways. It will react strongly after a point and catastrophes happen. In the movie, Appu is being bullied by those around him. At one point, he starts reacting and that forms the crux of the story,” says Jishnu.
The movie recently won the ‘Best Writer’ award at Indo Global International Film Festival, Mumbai. The movie also won the special mention awards for ‘Best Feature Film’ and ‘Best Film Director’ categories at Scene Festival, USA. The movie was also selected to Best of Latin America Festival, FlickFair Film Festival, Kosice International Film Festival, and Jharkhand International Film Festival. “Many results are pending due to the Covid-19 pandemic,” says Jishnu.
But, for Jishnu, the fact that his movie has been selected for these awards is a big deal. “The credit goes to the entire cast and crew.” The movie is divided into five chapters, based on the five tantras of the ‘Panchathantra’ fable. The movie was made for film festivals. So, I was particular about the quality of the content. The movie touches multiple dimensions and has many layers,” adds Jishnu, who also wrote the script, cranked the camera and edited the movie. The movie is produced by Artist Films.
The lead character of Appu is played by Sasikanthan and the others were selected through an audition. The movie is fully shot in natural light. “We wanted to give the natural feel of a village. Also, the dialogues were improvised by the actors during the shoot after I briefed them the scene. The cinematography and the performance of lead character got appreciation in all the film festivals,” adds Jishnu. The movie was shot in a week’s time at a budget of around Rs 2 lakh.Jishnu plans to start working on his next movie once the Covid-19 situation gets normal. “The script is already done. It will be an one room thriller,” he says.