Awe-inspiring experiment

“Truth, justice and righteousness — discussion about these subjects never take place.” These words of fire that appear in the trailer of Nandajan’s short film Churuttinte Gandham can wring out the heart of millions. This exceptional short film has transcended geographical boundaries and went on to receive the Award of Recognition in California Accolade Global Competition for experimental feature film.

Churuttinte Gandham portrays a theatre actor whose life events occur similar to his last play. Nandajan, who has worked for ten years as a theatre performer, takes inspiration for this cutting-edge movie from Kartar Singh Duggal’s work.

A 104-minute movie, Churuttinte Gandham journeys through the emotional experiences of an actor and draws upon ‘the agony of losing what you love’. Manoj Kumar plays the lead role in the film. “This is an open-ended film which blends the life and mindset of a soul trapped between reality and theatre in one layer and explores the communist influence in the evolution of human history in another layer,” reveals Nandajan.

The movie was in the fray at the California Accolade Global Competition in October and is being screened at several international film festivals. This experimental movie’s tone has serious uncanny undercurrents accentuated by distinctive musical notes. The use of colours like orange and yellow shows the gulf between professional theatre performance and real life.

Nandajan has provided significant creative contribution to movies like Sufi Paranja Katha and Janaki. In his opinion, “I do not believe that the focus of a movie is a message. A movie attains paramount importance as an art in itself.”