Garbage collection, one of the major obsessions of the central government at the moment, is also the theme of Malayalam director Biju Damodaran’s latest movie Perariyathavar (Names Unknown). Releasing in select PVR Cinemas multiplexes on January 16, Perariyathavar is the story of a temporary municipal worker who cleans up what the rest of the city has left behind and dumps the refuse on its outskirts. He is often accompanied on his rounds by his eight- year-old son, through whose innocent eyes much of the film unfolds.
Suraj Venjaramoodu, as the father, and Govardhan as the son, play characters living on the margins of society, their precarious existence forever threatened by threats of eviction, strikes, and protests against garbage dumping. The release timing just weeks after the Narendra Modi government’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan campaign is a coincidence, Damodaran said. “The film was shot a year before the programme was announced, but it is relevant,” he said. “Garbage is a very big issue in Kerala, and there is no strategy to tackle it.”
Reality bites
The garbage collector’s character is a tribal, who realises that trash is not an urban problem during a visit to a relative’s place inside a verdant forest. Tucked away under the emerald cover are the problems faced by the tribals – low incomes, poor health-care, and pollution caused by urban visitors. The issues portrayed in Perariyathavar, which won two national awards in the environment Conservation/preservation and best actor categories in 2013, have been inspired by several reported incidents in Kerala, Damodaran said. “Many of these events have happened in Kerala – strikes, problems with garbage collection, eviction of tribal people from their land and not being re-housed properly.”
Perariyathavar handles its grim subject and its concern for the marginalised sections of society with sobriety and quiet realism. The use of real locations and an almost entirely non-professional cast, except for such actors as Venjaramoodu (who does his fair share of sloshing around in trash) and Nedumudi Venu, who plays a garage owner. The movie features several representatives of Kerala’s poorest classes, from mechanics to brass band members, most of them portrayed by people who aren't actors. “I like to work on realistic movies, and I have tried in all my movies to avoid melodrama,” said Damodaran, who has four productions to his credit, all of which explore social issues. “Particularly for this movie, since I took real-life stories, I chose this mode of treatment.”
In order to ensure convincing performances from his cast, he rarely shares the entire script with them. “I tell my actors I don’t need them to act, but to behave,” he said. “Un-acting is difficult, but I get my actors to behave normally.”
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Suraj Venjaramoodu, as the father, and Govardhan as the son, play characters living on the margins of society, their precarious existence forever threatened by threats of eviction, strikes, and protests against garbage dumping. The release timing just weeks after the Narendra Modi government’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan campaign is a coincidence, Damodaran said. “The film was shot a year before the programme was announced, but it is relevant,” he said. “Garbage is a very big issue in Kerala, and there is no strategy to tackle it.”
Reality bites
The garbage collector’s character is a tribal, who realises that trash is not an urban problem during a visit to a relative’s place inside a verdant forest. Tucked away under the emerald cover are the problems faced by the tribals – low incomes, poor health-care, and pollution caused by urban visitors. The issues portrayed in Perariyathavar, which won two national awards in the environment Conservation/preservation and best actor categories in 2013, have been inspired by several reported incidents in Kerala, Damodaran said. “Many of these events have happened in Kerala – strikes, problems with garbage collection, eviction of tribal people from their land and not being re-housed properly.”
Perariyathavar handles its grim subject and its concern for the marginalised sections of society with sobriety and quiet realism. The use of real locations and an almost entirely non-professional cast, except for such actors as Venjaramoodu (who does his fair share of sloshing around in trash) and Nedumudi Venu, who plays a garage owner. The movie features several representatives of Kerala’s poorest classes, from mechanics to brass band members, most of them portrayed by people who aren't actors. “I like to work on realistic movies, and I have tried in all my movies to avoid melodrama,” said Damodaran, who has four productions to his credit, all of which explore social issues. “Particularly for this movie, since I took real-life stories, I chose this mode of treatment.”
In order to ensure convincing performances from his cast, he rarely shares the entire script with them. “I tell my actors I don’t need them to act, but to behave,” he said. “Un-acting is difficult, but I get my actors to behave normally.”
