Littil Swayamp is in Ooty finalising the location for Anjali Menon’s next movie, while cine-goers are going gaga about the magic he has created with his camera in his debut feature film, Parava. Even as many movie buffs are still trying to figure out who he is and what his name means, he is thrilled to bits.
“It is the result of nearly two years of hard work. What is special is that every aspect of Parava has been appreciated by the audience,” says the 28-year-old, basking in the adulation coming his way on his Facebook page and other social media platforms.
Parava, directed by Soubin Shahir, set in Mattancherry, is the story of two adolescent boys, Ichappi (Amal Shah) and Haseeb (Govind Pai), their pet pigeons and pigeon racing contests, garnished with liberal doses of emotions, action, romance and drama. Littil’s exquisite frames, which captured the life and hues of Mattancherry, its people, the houses, narrow lanes, food, playgrounds and, of course, the pigeons, are some of the highlights of the film.
“I have had parrots as pets, but not pigeons. But Soubin has reared pigeons for many years and knows everything about them. It was he who trained the pigeons bought from Nagercoil for nearly a year. The children stayed with Soubin during that time to get trained and bond with the birds. Soubin went that extra mile for every shot. He used to get upset when someone made any kind of noise on the sets as the birds would get distracted. There is so much passion and excitement in his voice when he talks about the birds. And he was confident that once the movie released, people would look at pigeons in a new light and not shoo them away,” he says.
However, each shot with the birds was a challenge, Littil adds. “The pigeons would take off in the morning and might return only in the evening. And there I was, waiting with the camera to capture its landing. Sometimes a pigeon wouldn’t return at all and then we would have to cast a new one! Or else, a pigeon would land on another terrace instead of the assigned spot. In between we had to give them adequate breaks also. We shot their scenes according to their convenience and whenever that didn’t happen, we planned and shot other scenes,” he explains with a chuckle.
He used eight cameras of different formats for the entire movie, a first for him. Experimenting with different lenses and getting the right colour palette for these frames were testing moments. “One difficult shot was Ichappi giving water to a pigeon from his mouth. Many of the shots with the pigeons tested our patience!”
He gives full credit to Soubin’s vision and his guts to experiment. It was on the sets of Charlie that he met Soubin to hear the story. Littil clearly remembers how Soubin talked for hours explaining each scene. “I immediately agreed. But once we started the shooting, I had my apprehensions about pulling it off. In fact we were worried about completing the movie. Soubin would crack jokes to ease the tension. The energy on the set was amazing,” he adds.
Equally exciting was spending time on the streets and lanes of Mattancherry. Littil says Soubin would take him around the town, tell stories about his childhood spent there, fly kites, eat from small teashops and hotels, catch up with Soubin’s relatives... “That experience got blended in my frames. People in Mattancherry wondered whether we were actually making a movie or not because they would see us every day! Kudos to producers Anwar Rasheed and Shyju Unni who backed the project knowing that it was a risky subject that was difficult to execute.”
At the end of it, he is looking forward to working with Soubin again. “He is a creative genius but I get scared thinking about what his next movie would be about. Lion cubs?”
Littil facts
* Littil calls Anwar Rasheed his mentor. He directed the promo song of Anwar’s Ustad Hotel and was an assistant in his production, Anjali Menon’s Bangalore Days. Littil was also one of the members of the band Kallumekkaya (the one with the Afro) in Ustad Hotel and has acted in several ads.
* He has directed Thaikkudam Bridge’s music videos, One and Navarasam.
* Littil is the founder-director of Bengaluru-based LiTTiL Works where he is a director, editor and cinematographer. Check out his works on www.littilswayamp.com
* The reason behind his quirky name is his father. His father named him Littil, a variation of the word ‘little’, because his siblings are older to him by more than a decade. Swayamp, a Sanskrit word, means treasure that reveals itself.