Tale of a tiny village

KOCHI: Have you ever heard of ‘Chalanga Puttu’? It used to be a favourite cuisine of people in Southern Kerala. Sundarimuthi, a short film directed by techie Rahul Reghuvaran, depicts the story of 122-year-old Ammini Thankam, known fondly as Sundarimuthi. The endearing narrative includes many anecdotes from the life of people of a fictional village named Annikkara and their quest for Chalanga puttu. 

The short film, which features state television award-winning actress Valsala Menon, was shot around the Parassala Assembly constituency. The other artists of the short film are from Kunnathukal village. It begins with Sundarimuthi fainting, and the local physician declaring that she won’t live for more than 24 hours. It is soon understood that Sundarimuthi will mark the Guiness World Record for the longest lived woman, if she survives for one more day. The villagers, meanwhile, get together to help her live.  The 30-minute short film is shot in the picturesque backdrops of Pantha, Amboori and Narani. Rahul had first planned to shoot the subject as a movie. 

“The script was very interesting. But when I approached some producers, they weren’t sure that I could direct it. So I decided to do a short film, taking a portion from the original script. Though the film is just  30 minutes, I wanted it to feel like a movie to the viewers,” says Rahul, who works in IBS Software. The character of Sundarimuthi was partly inspired by an elderly lady who lived in Kunnathukal. Initially, they casted Subbalakshmi (artist Thara Kalyan’s mother) to do Sundarimuthi’s role but she had to back off due to health issues. 

“Valsala Menon was shooting for ‘Mamangam’ then. We contacted the production controller and got her dates. Though her screentime is less, the entire story revolves around her character,” adds Rahul. The cinematography by Kannan Ganga and music by Jino deserves a special mention. The short film has already received around 64,000 views on YouTube. “The locations we shot were once used by directors like Padmarajan and Bharathan. Since the movie industry shifted to Kochi later, these aren’t used much these days. The locations in Amboori are similar to the ones in Idukki,” adds Rahul, who also did the editing and DI colouring. 

Sundarimuthi was shot on a budget of `1.2 lakh. The cast also included Kudumbashree unit members of Kunnathukal. “It was shot in two schedules last year. All the artists cooperated, even maintaining their looks for the second schedule. My crew was exceptional,” says Rahul. The script sticks to authentic accents and usages from southern Kerala. “I wanted my artists to dub for their character. Since they are all from Kunnathukal, I let them use their own dialect,” he says.