Nebish Benson picks up the call at 1 in the after noon. He has only a few minutes to talk before rushing back to school. Nebish has come home for lunch, but finds enough time to browse through some photos and talk about a little adventure he had in Munnar with a couple of friends. The 11th grader has acted in 10 films so far, his 11th coming out in August. But what he is excited about now is directing a short film on his own and releasing in on YouTube, calling it Pacha.
“I had the idea to take a short film for three years now, ever since I came to act in films as an eighth grader,” says Nebish. “When I spent time with men like Amalettan (director Amal Neerad) I felt so inspired to bring out a product of my own.” He didn’t think of it as a future dream but one he could start on right away. Age just never came in the way. So he shot off to Munnar with a couple of friends with the idea of Pacha. His elder brother Shebin — another young actor — says he wouldn’t even take him along!
“We had plans to get our friend Jimshi Khalid to do the cinematography but then he got busy and I thought it should be done by lesser known young talents, kids of my age group.” So his friends Jacob and Vasu did the cinematography which later got a lot of appreciation on YouTube. Joven did the poster design that even Nivil Pauly said was adipoli, says Nebish.
To act, he got two boys Vishnu and Vignesh. “We had a bird photographer called Kuttettan to help us find the good locations to shoot at. He suggested Vishnu. And we had picked up Vignesh on the way.” The four-minute-long film is full of green and blue, surrounding a boy called Kannan. “It is about hope and dreams. And it is about our environment.” Nebish has slowed down a bit on the acting front, taking his studies seriously. His upcoming film IDI will see him in Jayasurya’s childhood role.
