ബുക്ക് റിപ്പബ്ലിക് പുസ്തകപ്രകാശനം - വാര്‍ത്തകള്‍

ചിത്രത്തിനു കടപ്പാട്: ശ്രീനി ശ്രീധരന്‍

നിലവിളിയെക്കുറിച്ചുള്ള കടങ്കഥകള്‍ പ്രകാശനത്തെ സംബന്ധിച്ച് വന്ന വാര്‍ത്തകള്‍.

ഇന്ത്യന്‍ എക്സ്പ്രസ്സിലെ വാര്‍ത്ത

Movie out of a blog

KOCHI: It’s a proud moment for Malayalam bloggers. Five youngsters from blogosphere have raised the status of blogs to that of a creative platform by coming up with a first-of-its-kind video feature based on a blog story. The film, titled ‘Parole’, which had its first screening at Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday, celebrates the success story of the unity of a group of bloggers. The film will be screened at Changampuzha Park, Kochi at 4.30 pm on Saturday. A quick rewind: Manikantan, one of the first-generation Malayalam bloggers (he is only 33), published a story on his blog, ‘Sankuchithan’, almost three years ago. He also posted the screenplay of the story under the title ‘Parole’, which has now been captured on video by Sanal Sasidharan, another blogger.

Mani and Sanal had their first meeting in the blog world. To be precise, through Sanal’s blog ‘Sanathanan’. Sanal had a brief stint with direction in 2001 when he and a group of youngsters based in Neyyattinkara established Kazhcha Chalachitravedi out of their love for cinema. The group produced a video film ‘Wonder World’, which Sanal posted on his blog and which caught Manikantan’s eye. The rest will soon be history.

``We decided to make the screenplay into a movie and then everything began falling into place. Since we had this huge world of netizens to support us, what began as a five-member venture grew into a 50-member close-knit group. We didn’t go after mainstream personalities to handle any role in its creation, so the making of the movie was comparatively an easy affair,’’ says Sanal.

The only big name in the crew is that of editor Ajithkumar who has been associated with film-makers like Adoor Gopalakrishnan. The protagonist is a young boy, Kannan, played by Aditya. Of the other two child artists in the film, Kalyani, who plays the role of Ammu, is a blogger’s daughter. Another child artist Abhijit is Sanal’s nephew. Karamana Sudheer (son of Karamana Janardhanan Nair) and Sandhya Ramesh (Amrita TV’s ‘Vanitha Ratnam’ fame) also handle leading roles. Venu Pattambi is the art director of the film.

“We adults can deal with migrant life, but kids are not able to do that easily. In the film, Kannan finds it heart-breaking when he is about to be taken abroad after a long stay in his village,” Sanal explains.

The shooting of the 50-minute film took only two months and covered Chathanoor and neighbouring areas. The budget of the film was limited to Rs 2.5 lakh with three of the five-member blogger group pooling in the money. Apart from Mani (who is presently in Dubai) and Sanal, Shaji, Dileep and Kumar form the rest of the group.

So, what’s next? “We plan to make a cinema one day. Being bloggers always keeps us connected to a larger section, which is sure to lead us to our dream,” Sanal says.



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ഹിന്ദുവിലെ വാര്‍ത്ത

Book, movie by bloggers a hit

KOCHI: Scores of bloggers on Saturday met up at Changampuzha Park, Edapally, to release Nilaviliye Kurichulla Kadamkathaka, a collection of 49 poems authored by South Korea-based Keralite researcher T.P. Vinod. Published by the newly formed Book Republic, a commune of non-resident Keralite bloggers, the book was released by award-winning poet and blogger P.P. Ramachandran. Blogger N.G. Unnikrishnan received the first copy.

The group, aiming at carving a niche in the publishing industry by creating a unique system of book publishing, brought out the volume by pooling in money from members of the bloggers' network. They also plan to bring out CDs in a bid to promote quality woks of art and literature.

A Kaviyarangu, poetry reading session was also organised as part of the book release function in which writers P.P. Ramachandran, N.G. Unnikrishnan, P.N. Gopikrishnan, G. Ushakumari, Sebastian, Vishnu Prasad, Latheesh Mohan, Sanal Sasidharan and several others participated. Books by bloggers T.P. Anilkumar and Christian Joseph were on display at the venue. Another attraction was a sitar recital by T. Vinod Sankaran.

Parole, a short film based on a story and script written by blogger K.V. Manikantan (author of blog, Sankuchitham) and directed by Sanal Sasidharan (author of blog, Sanathanam) was screened as part of the event.

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ഈ പരിപാടിയുടെ വിജയത്തിനായി ആത്മാര്‍ത്ഥമായി പ്രവര്‍ത്തിച്ച എല്ലാവര്‍ക്കും അഭിനന്ദനങ്ങള്‍।

യാരിദ് പോസ്റ്റ് ചെയ്ത പുസ്തകപ്രകാശന ചടങ്ങിന്റെ വീഡിയോ ഇവിടെ