A worried Nivin Pauly watches his house being invaded by a troublesome trio he owes money to. Their faces are familiar and their expressions similar to those in a film released some time ago — 'Neram'. The same actors, in more or less the same roles, share the screen for a 15-minute short film called 'Eli', for the same director — Alphonse Putharen.
“I took up 'Eli' before 'Neram',” says Alphonse, who is currently busy with the Hindi adaptation of 'Shutter'. “Back then I showed the script to Vineeth Sreenivasan, and he liked it and agreed to produce it. Nivin Pauly is a friend of mine and played the lead character.”
Rajeev Pillai too plays a character in the film whose preview was at the AVM Theatre in Chennai.
Filmmaking has always been his dream, but Alphonse enjoys making short films as much as he does feature films. “Making a short film takes as much time and preparation as a feature film. The good thing is you don’t expect any returns while making a short film so you work with more freedom to do what you like. In a feature film you have to be cautious of every decision you make — whether the audience will like it or not.”
Airing the same views is Rojin, one of the directors of 'Philip And The Monkey Pen'. He, with his friends Shanil and Rahul, had started working on short films in the course of their journey to feature films. “Short films are tougher to make than feature films. You get two hours time to convey an idea in a feature film. But you have to express the same in a few minutes in a short film,” he says.
“Short films give you the self-satisfaction of having the freedom to film whatever you have in mind, without restrictions. Not that we faced any such challenges in our feature film. But short films will always be dear to me... it is what gave me the confidence to be a director. And I will keep making them." The trio is making a five-minute film for Christmas this year.
Another filmmaker who has made quite a few short films after his acclaimed debut 'Chithrasoothran' is Vipin Vijay, currently in Goa where his 'Vishaparvam' (Venomous Folds) is being screened at the IFFI. “Length of the film is mostly predetermined, especially when it is part of a certain commission. But if you ask me it is not important at all. I just completed two documentaries -one, a four-hour long one on Jainism in South India, and another, a three-and-a-half-hour one on Adoor Gopalakrishnan. It is the narrative that governs the length."
