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Challenging initiative
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An amateur effort to document the temples of Aluva is an interesting compilation.
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MOST OF the clubs and societies that function within the colleges are confined to their routine, stipulated activities, hemmed in by the paucity of funds to dream of anything adventurous. When most of the Tourism Clubs in the city colleges were content to conduct the usual seminars, quiz competitions, organise tours and guest interactions, the students of St. Xavier's College for Women, Aluva, have striven to be different.
Apart from the usual activities, the Tourism Club of this college has completed a video documentary, `Sayujyam Thedi.' It may not be a connoisseur's delight, replete with all the minuses of the amateur filmmaker, but it is still worth watching as it bubbles with the exuberance and freshness of youth.
Some of 23 temples featured may not fall into the category of `lesser known,' though less frequented; some of them may not really qualify to be `documented,' a few of them are surely bound to be a tourist's delight with its antiquity and marvellous architecture, while most of them have sadly been defaced by the modern concrete architectural style, all in the name of renovation.
One aspect that this film brings out, perhaps unintentionally, is the urgent need to preserve some of these vestiges of heritage. The Thirumoozhikulam Sree Lakshmana Perumal temple, the Madathilappan Ganapati Temple, which is very near the Uliyannoor Temple and the Elavoor Sree Puthenkavu Bhagavathi Temple are steeped in history, cultural and architectural, which needs immediate attention.
The documented material still needs heavy, sensible editing. No documentary can afford to have casual `shots' of the whole group in informal conversation, the script often tends to be repetitive, there are so many frames that closely resemble the run-of-the-mill wedding video and the concluding frames can easily be `scissored' off.
"We spent around Rs. 8,000 from our pockets to make this film. The shoot took two days and a professional cameraman helped us with the camerawork. The students did the scripting and compering. We have plans to do a second part of the temple series and also other related documentation in the coming years. Apart from this we are also conducting an all-Kerala inter-collegiate festival, `Tour O'Fest,' at the end of this month," informs Shyla Pappoo, the teacher-coordinator of the Tourism Club. The other teachers involved in the making of this documentary were Indu Panikkar and P. Leela, along with students Manjulakshmi, Angela, Manju Mohan Nair, Anu, Poornima Vijayan and student-coordinator Diana.
K.PRADEEP
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