8 TEENTIME

2012 APRIL 4 VOLUME 1, ISSUE 42 GULF MADHYAMAM l No1 IN THE GULF

CHIPS@

rom the tiny lens-view of an obscure ethnic community wedged in the Kerala-Karnataka borders, he gave us the big picture on a burning social issue. Film-maker K P Suveeran, whose debut film Byari, bagged the award for the best feature film at the recent 59th National Awards, has brought out the angst and aspirations of an ethnic community that speaks the Byari language, which is a hybrid of Malayalam and Tulu. In a rare coincidence, not only is this Suveerans first film, it is also the first ever film to be made in the Byari language. Thanks to the film, there is now a new impetus to add Byari to the Schedule of Indian languages and the establishment of a Byari Sahithya Akademi. When Suveeran took time off to speak to us last week, he virtually opened up a world unknown and its strange practices and odd sub-culture. He admits that he never expected Byari to be feted in the manner it has been. In fact, on a second viewing of his own film, the director felt that it was far from perfect. However, he was optimistic of the films chances of cornering regional glory at the Karnataka State level awards. Says Suveeran: The film sought to highlight the culture, tradition and language of the Byari community...and turn the spotlight on the stringent laws and codes of marriage and divorce in the Jyothi Varma Byari Muslim practice and their consequences on the women. It was a painful situation there. The women were unaware of a world beyond their narrow horizon and were quite resigned to their plight as it was, he said. According to the director, a language is representative of a whole culture. The Byari language does not have alphabet;

FIRST TAKE>

but in its spoken form is very close to Malayalam, Tulu and Urdu though. The word Byari is the shortened version of Vyaapaari which translates to trader. The Byari speaking community would have migrated to South Kannada centuries back from Kerala. When asked how a Malayali ended up making a film in another language, Suveeran says that in his experience it was a case of the film coming in search of him. The producer wanted him to do a film and he turned his request down since he was not convinced with the initial story line but later relented to the formers wish and agreed to visit the place. I was shocked to see women across all age groups with a perplexed expression on their faces. The basic emotion of the fairer sex from the age of three upwards seemed to be one of an emotional struggle against the many hurdles in their lives. The films focus is firmly on a group of people who are spurned and sidelined by society. In fact, though the women in the community are put through an emotional wringer in their everyday lives, they also gain a stoicism and strength of will that is usually hard to find in their counterparts in cosmopolitan settings. The women not only bear the burden of taking care of the family but also have to put up with atrocities of the spouse. On his thoughts on the medium of cinema, Suveeran says that films have a language of their ownto the extent that even human beings are not an absolute necessity. For him, film making is a mode of expression. Film making is a work of art. My likes and dislikes as an artist reflect in my films. If you plan to say something, back it up with validation, says Suveeran. He points out that when scientists first had to prove that the Earth was spherical, they had to back their hypothesis

ting the Scrip cripted uns

The film sought to highlight the culture, tradition and language of the Byari community...and turn the spotlight on the stringent laws and codes of marriage and divorce in the Byari Muslim practice and their consequences on the women.

with hard facts... so is the case with the exposition of an idea in a film. Theatre is Suveerans first love though cinema offers him greater expanses of reach. To the aspiring film makers he says: Have a close look at life before making films. If only you have something to say, and feel that it is you who need to say it, should you go ahead. There is no point in imitating someone else. Be original. n

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V K Sreelesh
nce again here is the same stuffwho-sank-the-Titanic? But with a little difference; unlike the previous story, which found the ships captain as the culprit, the latest has netted a big fish as responsible for the wreck. Of course, the iceberg is still there in the background. At the hundredth anniversary of ships mishap, it seems there are more stories than what we know remain hidden from public. Only a few weeks ago a blitzkrieg headline hit the world. We too ran the stuff. That blamed the captains drunken driving as the reason. Because a lady on board, who lost her brother, claimed she had seen the captain as having alcohol. The captain is not alive to either stand in the dock or answer her allegations. But this time round a big fish is being targeted. He is the man who people vote over and again as the greatest Briton everWinston Churchill. A new book, Who Sank the Titanic? puts a major chunk of responsibility on Britains great and controversial statesman but how? Authored by Robert Strange, investigative journalist and former crime reporter, the book finds that this war-time Prime Minister had a previously unrecognised role in the disaster in 1912. At that time he was the remember this story ?

Churchills titanic

TIME OUT
President of the Board of Trade, which was responsible for marine safety. He was in the office when the Titanic was planned, designed and built. Yet he failed in his duties as the President to ensure that the ship was properly constructed. The author claims that Churchill was fatally distracted from his vitally important safety duties owing to a combination of factors, which include his political ambition, wounded pride and the pursuit of his future wife Clementine. I believe he bears a heavy burden of responsibility for the deaths of 1,500 men, women and children who perished, many needlessly, in the icy Atlantic waters, the author alleges. After browsing through 100-yearold files in the National Archives of Britain and the USA, Strange accuses Churchill of dereliction of duty. Metaphorically speaking, [he] sank the Titanic, he says. After hitting an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York, the ship sank in just two hours and 40 minutes. Lifeboats had seats for only one-third of the passengers; the rest perished in the waters. Churchills Board of Trade Safety inspectors should have properly checked up the number of safety boats, and they also had to supervise the ships construction. But Churchill took his eye off the ball and knowingly presided over a regulatory body not fit for purpose, the author pins down. According to the book Churchill was personally warned several times that lifeboat regulations were out of date. But he sat on those warnings letting the misadventure to take innocent lives. Studies by Strange reveal that Churchills department was undermanned, illtrained and badly managed. But at the time Churchill was preoccupied with financial worries, upcoming election, and new love, Clementine. By the time the Titanic was launched Churchill was promoted to Home Secretary. Thus he escaped public examination of his role in the Titanic. Corroborating this, earlier researchers found weak steel plates and rivets as the reasons for the rapid sinking of the ship. So what does it mean? Did Churchill get away with it? If past happenings are any indication, you can soon expect a new book giving him a clean chit. n