Ten minutes with Changampuzha

KOCHI: The words of Changampuzha is soul-stirring as images visualised in his poems flood the mind. The documentary on Changampuzha Krishna Pillai made by Sanand Karunakaran of Std X, Bhavan's Adarsha Vidyalyala, won the first place at the all-Kerala interschool documentary film contest organised by Chinmaya Vidayalaya Vaduthala recently.It opens with a girl sketching a portrait of Changampuzha against the backdrop of his poetry. With dexterous lines she captures the  countenance and before she could complete it, the scene shifts to the poet's birth. The time of birth, his birth star and astrological interpretation foretells a short span of life. But his works immortalises the man whose romantic lines reverberates in classrooms and stages even today. The script focuses on his pastoral elegy 'Ramanan' portraying the picture of the poet with his friend Edappally Raghavan Pillai on whom the work was based on.Chagampuzha's daughter Lalitha goes down to childhood days when poetry sprang out. He was often forbidden to go out and play with other children and the lonely moments gave birth to verses, she said. He enjoyed penning poems and distributing them to all.The film takes one to his school days and then to his college days when his poetry was a hit and his college mates hardly identified him until one day their lecturer pointed to the lanky young man on the last bench.Ten minutes is too less to capture the essence of the great man but the boys have delved into every aspect of his life, including his memorials. The concept, script, visuals and treatment are engaging. Interviews with Changampuzha's sister-in-law  Mandara Lakshmy, grandson Harikumar and Prof M K Sanu throw life on his personal life and his poetry. The documentary ends with a mohiniyattam based on his poetry 'Kavyanarthaki'. "I plan to extend its duration to 25 minutes. by adding interviews with K R Gowri who was his classmate and another classmate," said Sanand who is passionate about photography. With no previous experience he attended a documentary film workshop which lent him the confidence. His teachers especially his Malayalam teacher helped with the conception and script. His classmates Anand and Aishwarya  Suresh and school mate and singer Poornasri lent a hand in camera, music and dance.