Monday, February 25, 2013

'Celluloid' - the life and times of JC Daniel.

The Malayalam film, 'Celluloid' made by Kamal has become popular and to top it all, it has also won quite a few awards in the state government's announcements for the year 2012.

It chronicles the life and times of JC Daniel, who, in 1920, meets none other than Dadasaheb Phalke at Bombay and decides to make a 'motion' picture in Malayalam. His enthusiasm is so overwhelming that he puts his entire wealth into the making of the movie. He also decides to make a social drama unlike the mythological genre of films that were then being made by the Hindi and the Tamil film industries.

And the movie was 'Vigathakumaran' meaning 'Lost child'. He, too, had acted in his film! Unfortunately, there are no takers with the film staying in the cans and it's said that Daniel died a broken man, literally penniless and in abject poverty! The trials and tribulations that he'd to undergo for his passion of film making forms the script of Kamal's latest effort.

The songs have a 'period feel' about them and they merge well with the backdrop. And they've quite a few shots of the lush rural landscape depicting the period.


Tailpiece.

The movie has picked up a lot of controversies primarily for the errors in facts, though to my mind it's a case of making a mountain out of a mole hill. The maker has used his artistic freedom. Period!

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