Short movie about life of ageing parents shot in Muscat
The premier of a short movie about the life of ageing parents, Smruthipadhangal (Down memory lane), was held at Grand Millennium Muscat recently. Written and directed by Ramachandran Nair, the film focuses on the loneliness of parents capturing the feel of different generations and how the contemporary living is related to the reality of loneliness that many old age people face today.
The 23-minutes movie highlights the significance of family bonds with an end message to the viewers highlighting the significance of family bonds, and to what extent parents think to find comfort in the last phase of their life.
P K Nair, Second Secretary (Consular), Embassy of India was the chief guest at the function. Dr Sridevi P Thashnath (Principal, Indian School Darsait), Dr Retnakumar Janardanan (Insurances Services Centre), T Bhaskaran (Indian Social Club, Malayalam Wing) and Sivasankara Pillai were the dignitaries who attended.
While appreciating the effort behind the movie, P K Nair congratulated the entire team part of the initiative. “Everyone played their role well and the message is clear”.
He said: “The life of ageing parents is so wretched and has become a reality of contemporary living. The loneliness often reflects as a kind of remembrance of the past as how they lived and what they expect when they become old. For those parents who live alone, the presence of their children brings them a kind of comfort in their last phase of their journey.”
Even though the topic has been touched upon at many angles in the past in print, on the celluloid and in the form of documentaries, it once again touches upon the most sensitive issue, but in a different perspective.
Says Ramachandran who frequently engages himself in social issues through the media: “Some real-life situations have prompted me to work on this project and these have been captured in the movie.”
Ever since the traditional family perception has shifted to the ‘nuclear’ concept, the agony of parents emanated to the real suffering. They keep trying to get rid of the loneliness by approaching neighbours and distant relatives.
At the same time, circumstances demand youngsters to leave their home for survival and with no end limit, which the society considers to be ignoring their parents. The aged parents may not prefer to stay overseas along with their children due to various reasons, and parents do realise that their children cannot stay with them due to their own responsibilities and commitments.
The cast includes Pranadeesh Menon, Lekha Vinod, Baburaj Pillai, Jolly Mathews and Athira Prajeesh who have essayed the lead roles in the movie.
Satheesh Kannur has composed the background music with camera by Saji Ochira. The music was extremely supported with the situations bringing more life to the emotional scenes, while Pradeep Kumar (flute) and Dhanya Ratheesh (veena) worked with Satheesh to make it more touching.
The movie will soon be telecast on a satellite channel and subsequently uploaded to Youtube.