Search for identity
SARASWATHY NAGARAJAN
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P.T. Kunjumohammed's `Pardeshi' focusses on Malayalis who are forced to live as `foreigners' in Kerala.
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QUEST: P.T. Kunjumohammed's `Pardeshi' is his third film.
P.T. Kunjumohammed is fascinated by the ideas of identity, belonging and alienation. All his films have been an attempt to delve into the roots of an individual's identity and his place in society. Be it `Maghreeb,' which looks into the reasons that makes society turn against certain people, or `Garshome,' which dealt with a Gulf returnee's sense of alienation, Kunjumohammed focusses his lens to map his characters' angst, confusion and despair during their relentless search for a place of their own. His latest film `Paradeshi' also is a continuation of that search.
Mohanlal and Shweta Menon play the lead in the film that is set against the backdrop of the Partition.
The Partition
"There has been many plays, stories and films on the Partition but none of them examined the effects of the Partition on Malayalis. `Paradeshi' is about the trauma of one such Malayali called Valiayakathu Moosa.
Mohanlal plays Moosa and the film traces the life of this man without a country and his plight as the political relations between the neighbours nose dive and deprive him of a place to call his own.
Says the director: "It is based on a true story and I know a few elderly people in Malabar who are caught in this situation. Before the Partition, many Malayalis went to work in Karachi. But after 1947, when they tried to return to India, they were labelled as Pakistanis. Pakistan refused to accept them as citizens and so they became individuals lost in the twilight zone... , always living in the fear of being deported, of being uprooted from home and family, of being aliens in their country."
The director says that through Moosa's story he is narrating the story of refugees all over the world. "Political and manmade barriers cannot cut a person's umbilical cord to his soil. Efforts to uproot him on the basis of religious or regional differences are rampant throughout history. This can be seen in Palestine, Bosnia and Rwanda."
Eighty-five-year-old Moosa's desperate effort to stay in Kerala and his constant fear of being torn from his family highlights the pathos of such people. Karadan, Khadija and Usman are some of the others who are in the same boat as Moosa.
"Three phases of Moosa's life will be shown - when he is 35, 65 and 85. Many of the characters have ties that defy lines drawn on a map," says Kunjumohammed.
Produced by Antony Perumbavoor, the shooting of the film has begun at Ottapalam. Certain parts of the film will be shot near the border in Rajasthan. The cast includes Jagathy Sreekumar, Kavya Madhavan, Lakshmi Gopalaswamy, Vijayaraghavan, Sreeraman and Cochin Haneefa. Ramesh Narayan is composing the music for the film.
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