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Cameras to roll inside parliament for film on A.K. Gopalan
By Liz Mathew,

New Delhi, April 30 Three decades after the death of A.K. Gopalan Nambiar, one of the leading lights of the Indian communist movement, his life and the long years he spent as a parliamentarian will be captured on celluloid as shooting begins inside parliament's precincts.

National award-winning director Shaji N. Karun has got permission from Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee to shoot some aspects of the life of Gopalan, who was popularly known as AKG, in the Indian parliament building for his short film titled "AKG".

 

The Parliament House building had earlier been open to film cameras twice - for Ben Kingsley's "Gandhi" and Jabbar Patel's "Dr. Ambedkar", according to parliament officials.

Born in 1904, AKG was an outstanding leader of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and a member of the Lok Sabha for five consecutive terms since 1947 till his death in March 22, 1977.

He joined the communist movement in 1939 and made significant contributions to building a people's movement under the leadership of the CPI-M.

Shaji and his team will have a three-day shooting schedule in the national capital from May 10 during which they will can a few scenes in Teen Murti Bhavan - where he would try to present AKG's relationship with first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru - and at 4, Ashoka Road, where he used to live as MP.

In the 70-minute-long film, which he calls a "docufiction", Shaji says he wants to capture the "human side" of the country's first opposition leader.

"His life was so eventful and shooting a part of it is a challenge. The film will focus on his human side," Shaji told IANS.

"The message I want to send through the film is that only a good humanist can become a good communist or a leader," said the director.

While noted artist P. Sreekumar will don the role of AKG in the film, Shaji has chosen two National School of Drama artists to play Indira Gandhi and Nehru. Archana, an upcoming television artiste, is the politician's wife Susheela Gopalan, who was industries minister in Kerala.

According to P. Karunakaran, AKG's son-in-law and MP, the film is a brainchild of the Kasargode unit of the CPI-M to "introduce AKG's life to the younger generation".

The film has already been shot at Kasargode, Alappuzha and Thiruvananthapuram districts of Kerala. It has interviews with veteran leaders Jyoti Basu, Harkishen Singh Surjeet, CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat, who began his political career as secretary to AKG, Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan and party state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan as well as AKG's daughter Laila.

 

IANS