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Film eyes record with 10-hour shoot
Indo-Asian News Service

Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 17 (IANS) National Award winning director Jayaraj is all set to enter the Guinness Book of World Records Sunday by shooting a full length film in less than 10 hours. 
 

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The film titled "Atbhutham" is a bilingual to be made in Malayalam and English and would be shot at the Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad. Starring another National Award winning personality, Suresh Gopi, it deals with the theme of euthanasia. 

The story unfolds in Oregon in the US that has legalised euthanasia. 

Subhash Gopi, the brother of Suresh Gopi, told IANS that the film would be shot Sunday and for the past four days rehearsals had been on in Hyderabad.

"Suresh called me up just now and said there have been meetings after meetings ahead of the actual shooting that would begin tomorrow morning and end tomorrow itself," Subhash said. 

The total length of the film will be 78 minutes because for it to be categorised under the feature film section, it has to have a minimum duration of 72 minutes. 

Reports indicate the film is on a character (played by Gopi) who has been in the US for a long time and suffers from cancer. He demands mercy killing and in this he is helped by his Malayali wife who is also his attorney. 

Jayaraj as a director is known to go off the beaten track. The film is being produced by his own production company, Harvest Dreams. 

Jayaraj's journey to history-making 'Atbhutham'
By Poornima K., Indo-Asian News Service 

Hyderabad, Dec 21 (IANS) Filmmaker Jayaraj, who has created history by making a feature film, "Atbhutham", in two hours and 14 minutes, is a winner of many national and international awards. 

Born in 1960 in Kottayam to middle-class parents, Jayaraj was good in academics and earned a degree in electronics and telecommunication from the College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram, but cinema always remained his special interest. 

As a student he joined local film societies and watched a lot of world classics. The one film that influenced him immensely was "Bicycle Thief". 

After completing engineering, he moved to Chennai to meet noted filmmaker late Bharatan who used to live next to his sister's house. Impressed with the young man, Bharatan made him associate director in his film "Chilambu". Jayaraj went on to assist him in six more films.

He debuted as an independent filmmaker with "Vidyarambham" in 1988, which was followed by several average films. It was "Paithrukam" made in 1993 with Suresh Gopi in the lead role that made people sit up and notice him as a serious filmmaker. 

But his biggest achievement was his 10th film "Desadanam" in 1996. It tells the story of a 10-year-old boy who was chosen to be a 'sanyasi'. The film won many awards, including the state award for Best Director, and was invited to participate in Pesaro, Fukuoka, Karlovy Vary, London and Shanghai film festivals. It won an honour at the 1997 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. 

Then came "Kaliyattam" in 1997, another important film in his career. The film retells Shakespeare's "Othello" with the Theyyam festivals of north Kerala as a backdrop. He won the Best Director award at the national level, and Suresh Gopi was selected as India's Best Actor that year. 

"Kaliyattam" also participated in the international film festivals at Berlin, Vancouver, Singapore and Bangkok.

It was followed by "Karunam" (2000), the first in the Navarasa series. The film tells the story of an old couple abandoned by their children in an old age home. It won the Golden Peacock award at the International Film Festival of India (2000) and the Kerala state award for Best Film. 

The second film in the Navarasa series was "Shantham" starring footballer I.M. Vijayan as the protagonist and K.P.A.C. Lalitha and Seema Biswas as two important characters. The film won two awards at the national level that year, for the Best Film and Best Supporting Actress (K.P.A.C. Lalitha). 

The film also has the distinction that its cinematographer Ravi Varman - for the first time for an Indian cinematographer - won an international award for cinematography at the 23rd International Film Festival in France. 

The third in the Navarasa series was "Bheebhats" in Hindi with Seema Biswas in the lead.

Even as he makes serious movies like "Desadanam", "Kaliyattam" and "Karunam", he also churns out run-of-the-mill films like "Millennium Brothers". Last year he made the hugely successful commercial film "4 The People", and some more forgettable films.

But then he alternates these with the serious genre. His next efforts after "4 The People" were a small film called "Makalkku" and an offbeat film on communalism and terrorism. Both the films won a lot of critical acclaim.

"Atbhutham" is the fourth in the Navarasa series.