The forests of Neliampathy was an unexplored territory for Pearle Maaney, but when she ended her shooting there for her film 'The Last Supper', it provided her with many surprises at every twist and turn. Pearle spent close to 20 days shooting in the forest, along with her co–stars Unni Mukundan and Anu Mohan, and found the entire experience a novel one.
The shoot happened deep in the forest, where civilisation was a bare minimum, and animals owned the land. Pearle said, “I knew what I was getting into and went into the forest with my eyes wide open! I knew that a shoot in the forests would definitely not be a bed of roses and it turned out to be so! On the positive side I felt a deep sense of connection with myself and I had the luxury of time for introspection and contemplating. There is no mad honking or any traffic, just a general sense of quietness in an unpolluted environment. I could feel a deep connection with nature and want to go there again.”
An unchartered territory throws up many challenges like one can also savour some surreal moments which would never happen in an urban world. Pearle, who was accompanied by her parents and her sister, had one such enchanting moment that played out on a moonlit night. She explained, “All our family members were sitting down for dinner in our room when we had a surprise visitor from the wild — a deer. He came boldly right up to our table and ate from our hands. My father remarked that we had a deer join us for dinner! I even fed him glucose and he left soon after.” Pearle cannot contain her happiness when she recounts this. There was also a holy man whose blessings the crew sought each day before the shoot began.
While such moments provided a much-needed break, the shoot itself was arduous and tested her endurance and stamina. Pearle mentions the numerous leech bites that still itch and the difficult locations and shoots. She recalled, “It was the first time I had spent so many days in a forest. I had to do trekking and even rock climbing up a cliff. There were moments when I came close to tears, but I also knew at the back of my mind that I had to cope up with the rest of the male crew and cast. That endurance and thought strengthened my resolve!”
The film directed by Vinil Vasu is about friendship and betrayal and most of the crew and cast met with minor mishaps, but came out stronger mentally and physically.
