It is a path strewn by the unbearable weight of endless failures of the promises held afloat by revolutions in the past.
A revolution, if genuine, will certainly make the world more beautiful. T.N. Joy aka Najmal Babu is a person who is still in search of the correct path for such a revolution. It is a path strewn by the unbearable weight of endless failures of the promises held afloat by revolutions in the past. But revolutionaries are not ordinary mortals; they are people meant to chase the elusive dream of emancipation of humanity, risking their own skins, in a lonely journey.
The 50-minute documentary, Lokathe Soundaryapeduthan Shramicha Oral (A person who tried to make the world beautiful), is an attempt to visually capture Joy’s saga of the hope, agony and complexities involved in such a lonely journey. The narrative of V.K. Sreeraman, known for his uncanny eye for the unusual, provides glimpse of the fervour that dominated the intellectual terrain of Kerala in the late 1960s and 1970s. The reminiscences by eminent poets Satchidanandan, K.G. Sankara Pillai and of course Joy, the protagonist, have resulted in a compelling film.
The second screening of the film held at the Sahithya Academy Hall in Thrissur following the release of the book Apoornathinte Bhangi (The Beauty of the Incomplete) by Joy has received good response. The book, a collection of writings of Joy, edited by Dileep Raj brings to focus traces of original thinking and ideas by a person who describes himself as a “beauty consultant”.
