THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In 2002, as anti-Muslim riots raged across Gujarat, thousands of women lost their homes, loved ones and their reason to live.
But that blind, mindless fury couldn’t kill their faith in the law of the land and the sane elements in society.
“They still believe Indian courts will grant them justice. And they continue to fight for it,” says T.V. Chandran, noted Malayalam filmmaker.
He should know. He has traveled across Gujarat, meeting hundreds of victims of the riots.
“I visited many refugee camps in 2007, five years later. The women there had been subjected to gang rapes and severe atrocities. They had lost their men and their land, but their spirit was intact,” recalls Chandran.
Chandran’s latest movie, Vilapangalkkappuram (Beyond the wail), is all about this undying spirit of the Muslim women in Gujarat. The protagonist of the movie is a teenage Malayalee girl Zahira, whose father is a teashop owner in Ahmedabad.
During the riots, he and his little child are killed and his wife and teenaged daughter gang-raped. They are then dumped in an unused well with a plan to douse them with petrol and set them afire.
Zahira escapes in the night and reaches Kozhikode in Kerala. But she finds no refuge there and returns to Gujarat, to fight for the cause of victims like her.
“Girls are victims of religious fanatics everywhere. Growing religious fundamentalism poses a threat to women in Kerala as well,” said Chandran, at the premiere of the film here.
Chandran had to face stiff opposition in Gujarat while shooting there and had to pack off at one stage. He then shifted his location to Mysore to complete the film, which is written and produced by Aryadan Shoukath.
“The day after the Godhra, we were enjoying a fashion show in Kozhikode. Gujarat riots still figure in the state’s politics but the real issue is often swept under the carpet. What were we doing to these girls and the elderly, the innocent victims of the pogrom?” asks Chandran. The cast of the film includes Priyanka, Suhasini, Biju Menon, Thilakan, M.R. Gopakumar, Sreeraman, Indrans, Praveena, Zeenath, Santa Devi, Nilambur Aysha and N.K. Raveendran.
The hero of his 2004 film, Kadhavaseshan, end his life after he came to know that the little girl he befriended in Gujarat was gang-raped and killed during the riots. “This is a sequel to that film, if you want to see that way,” Chandran said.
This is the second time Shoukath and Chandran join hands for a film, the first being the award-winning Padom Onnu: Oru Vilapam. The film won Meera Jasmine the national award for the best actress.
M.J. Radhakrishnan cranks the camera while M. Jayachandran has set score to Girish Punthencherry’s lyrics. The film will be released this month in India and abroad.
