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Crazy about cinema

Brother act Ramu Bhattathiri and Appu Bhattathiri are ardent movie buffs

When Kerala State Chalachitra Academy decided to create an interactive CD ROM on 75 years of Malayalam Cinema, Narayana Bhattathiri was given the charge of text design. One day, as he was working, his 10-year-old son Ramu peeped over the monitor and pointed out certain mistakes. Bhattathiri asked him to jot down the corrections. Bina Paul, the then deputy director of Chalachitra Academy, saw the boy’s work and decided to appoint him as data consultant for the project. But that is not where the story begins.

Says 13-year-old Ramu: “I have always been interested in movies. I love collecting data on cinema, especially Malayalam cinema, on which I read a lot too. I started off with film magazines and I am now reading books on cinema.”

Naïve, bratty and passionate about movies, Ramu is perhaps the youngest and one of the most informed cinema lovers in town. Ask him anything, ranging from box office collection to details of cast and crew, to the movie’s film making technique, and he has the answers.

“I watch television shows on cinema, I read reviews, interviews et al. I also take note of posters, advertisements and box office reports as I’m interested in the reach of every film. But, of late, I do not watch all the films. I only watch those that my brother Appu recommends,” he says.

Ramu’s brother Appu is also a movie buff, but focusses on World cinema, as he puts it. “It is not that I am not interested in regional films. As an aspiring filmmaker I prefer learning from foreign films, especially when it comes to content and treatment,” says Appu who has a celebrated blog on cinema titled ‘Apur Sansar.’ (http://appunb.

blogspot.com/)

“I started the blog because I was losing track of the films I viewed. I have tried to catch up with 300-odd films in the last two years. So, it’s natural that you miss out some stuff on recollection. ‘Apur Sansar’ has film reviews for my own reference,” he adds.

“Blog is a space where you can write your mind. Many things that you cannot tell the filmmaker in person can be added here,” says Appu.

Appu says his blog will soon feature a behind-the-scene account of the films. “I try and trace the details of the making of every film I watch. For example, during the making of the German movie ‘The Lives of Others,’ the crew had to repaint the streets where they shot as the shooting permission note had a clause that stated they had to do so. The stunning visual effect in ‘Beautiful Mind’ was planned and executed on the spot; the script did not have such a scene. Guillermo Arriaga, screenwriter of ‘Amores Peross,’ ‘21 grams’ …, writes only one draft. And he writes only one scene per day.”

Ramu is trying to develop a page devoted to trends in film making. “I would like to study how ‘Memento’ triggered a series of films like ‘Irreversible’, ‘Five Times Two,’ ‘Peppermint candy’ and so on, why and how English drama techniques still prevail in screen writing …” he concludes.

Appu will soon leave for Chennai for a course in visual effects but Ramu says he has no interest in making cinema a full-time vocation.

“I will not tell you what I want to become, because in case I am not able to achieve what I want, I will be ridiculed, right? So, let that be a secret.”

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