Pradeep Nair on his tryst with filmdom

Pradeep Nair made a splash at the State and National Film Awards in 2005 almost out of nowhere. At the National Awards, he won a special jury award for directing Oridam, his debut feature film. Oridam did even better at the State Awards. It won four awards, including one for actor Geethu Mohandas for her portrayal of a sex worker. The film had raised expectations about its self-taught director. However, Pradeep hasn’t been able to capitalise on it and hasn’t had a single release in theatres since then.

He is, nonetheless, hopeful about the new film he is starting later this month.Udal features Vijay Babu and Urmila Mahanta, who had acted in Ketan Mehta’sManjhi, in lead roles. “I am sure that this film will be noticed, just like Oridamwas. It is an intense love story, told from the point of view of a young working class woman. Her life changes when a writer enters her life,” says Pradeep.

This is not his first feature after Oridam, though. He directed Cherukkanum Pennum, starring Sreejith Vijay and Deepthi Nambiar in the lead. “It is about the relationships of young people; how quickly they get into one and then get out of it even faster,” says the Kottayam-based director.

Actually, it is after making his mark as a director of documentaries that Pradeep turned to feature films. His latest documentary, Kuttanad: Oru Apoorva Marutha Thina, recently won the state award, for the best film on science and environment.

“The brief from the Public Relations Department of the Government of Kerala was to make a 25-minute film about the heritage of Kuttanad,” says Pradeep. Kuttanad… runs into 91 minutes.

“When I started researching for the film, I delved into the history, culture, farming, and many other aspects of Kuttanad. I found it all fascinating and I felt I needed much more time to tell the story,” he explains.

Looking back at his life as a youngster besotted with film, he recalls that he just missed the mark to qualify for the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune. Then Pradeep decided to make Oridam by investing his own money. “There was no producer to begin with, but later on, a Malayali working in the United States, Jesinlal James, came on board. I was able to rope in Geethu for the lead role, and that helped to sell the film. It was made on a shoe-string budget,” he says.

He believes even now it is possible to do good work in Malayalam outside the mainstream. “The taste of the Malayali audience has changed. There are people in Kerala who view cinema seriously. Our film festivals, big and small, are ample proof of that,” he says.

source:  http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> Friday Review / by P.K. Ajith Kumar / Thiruvananthapuram – August 11th, 2016