TRIVANDRUM, 5 October 2004 — At least 300 midgets, well below three feet, are making their screen appearance in a film currently being shot in the southern state of Kerala. South Indian filmmaker Vinayan, director of many a hit film, has painstakingly gathered the dwarfs from all over India for his new venture “Athbhutha Dweep” or the Wonder Island. Among these 300, sixty are from Kerala. The film is set for a nationwide release, besides a few centers in the Gulf, in April. Vinayan, who drew criticism for his earlier films with physically challenged as protagonists, often making fun of them for their disabilities, says he actually wants to highlight the sorrows and agonies of the less privileged. He imagined a country of all-male dwarfs and normally built females. The females were ordinary obedient wives ignorant of the outside world until a tall handsome man, the emerging superstar Pritwiraj, and his three friends arrive on the island after a shipwreck. The rest is on the screen. Bombay model Mallika Kapoor is also appearing in the film in a guest role. “It’s a movie in the usual mould-with a lot of fun and sentimental stuff. It also has a message,” says Vinayan.
