THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Shadow figures of gods, goddesses and demons dancing in the evenings lit by the flickering light of the oil lamps were probably the first moving images that Malayalees saw on screen. This year, before every masterpiece film shown at the festival, the film-buffs would get to see the same images and probably a lot more of the shadow puppetry that was once part of entertainment or rituals.The Signature film of the 16th International Film Festival of Kerala, titled ‘The Silhouttes of Camaraderie’ has puppetry as the main theme, taking us through the evolution of visual art in different parts of the world. “With Aravaindan’s puppet being the logo of the festival, we were actually surprised that no one thought of it before,’’ said Bejoy Balachandran, a member of the Blueberries Animation team and director of the signature film.A former student of the Fine Arts College, Bejoy got together with some of his friends of the 2004 painting batch to start the animation venture. They are part of SHOW- total visual media solutions, a platform of creative people working in the field of visual media based at Kudappanakunnu. From the state’s very own ‘Tholpavakoothu’ to the highly ornamented wayang goleks and wayang kulets of Java, the chakoram or the crow pheasant takes a 32-sec flight through silhouettes of puppets, from Egypt and Greece, through Arabia and India to Japan, Korea and Indonesia. The puppets from all over takes out a procession until the seed of the festival grows into the festival tree bringing out the spirit of the festival- the transnational camaraderie. ‘’This is an idea that we had in our mind for a couple of years now. We worked seriously at it so that it befitted the space given to a signature film. We wanted it to be perfect as it is something that is shown before the films of great masters from all over the world,’’ said Bejoy. The music for the signature film, that has shots both in 2D and 3D, is by a city based Pink Floyd tribute band, Fly Council.While the ancient visual art was used the world over to animate inanimate objects and express or communicate the ideas and needs of ancient man, the most beautiful and ornamented puppets are from Java, said Bejoy. ‘’While puppetry did not advance beyond the primitive or tribal nature in many countries, the carvings and ornamentation of the Java puppets are exquisite. I would say the next best are the ones from Kerala,’’ said Bejoy, who wants to digitise whatever is left of the ancient art in Kerala. Along with Bejoy who directed the film, it was the team of Bineesh G S who did the art direction, Binoy B Chandran who did the animation, Suvarna, who did the illustration, Praveen V R who did the sound mixing and Bipin B Chandran, who did the research and script that made the signature film possible.
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