Director Vetri Maaran, actor Samuthirakani and Madurai MP Su. Venkatesan releasing a documentary film on CPI(M)‘s former general secretary Sitaram Yechury at the 24th party congress in Madurai on Friday.
| Photo Credit: G. MOORTHY
“The learnings and the experience gained through the process of filmmaking of my recent film ‘Viduthalai’ had me made a student of Marxism,” said film director Vetri Maaran at the cultural event conducted on the side lines of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s 24th congress here on Friday.
The learning, he said, gave him a serious perspective that any social structure not built on the foundation of Marxism would go against the people.
The homework which went for the film ‘Viduthalai’ for about two years introduced him to several leaders, books, people and locations that he had not come across in his 40 years of experience of filmmaking, he added.
“An important lesson I learnt was that leaders are not those who are attractive but those who stand with the people through their struggles and fights to win their freedom. But the current scenario overshadows those people’s leaders,” he noted.
Their austerity and courage were solely built on their ideology they follow, he said.
On converting a novel or a short story into a film, he said: “I learnt necessities of the skill from my master Balu Mahendra with whom I worked for the series of short films he made for Kadhai Neram serial inspired from various short stories.”
He recalled that Balu Mahendra taught him how to see a novel as just a story and structure without getting into the artistic part of it.
“If the plain story and the structure do not interest the reader, then it cannot be made into a film,” he added.
But still the challenges that would linger during the filmmaking should be faced by the filmmaker, Mr. Vetri Maaran said.
Writer Poomani’s ‘Vekkai’ novel which was made into Asuran was not satisfying for the writer, but that should be handled as the filmmaking aspect was different from the writing process, he added.
Actor-director Samuthirakani, while addressing audience, said that during his first experience of participation in a State-wide Students’ Federation of India conference, he learnt how simple the Communist leaders were in their life.
“The foremost aim of Communists is to equalise the class difference and societal hierarchies and in their journey towards they have face the odds thrown by other hidden forces,” he added.
“My only request for the Communist parties is to work for a united left front to face the upcoming struggles,” Mr. Samuthirakani noted.
A documentary film on former CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury was released by Madurai MP Su. Venkatesan along with Mr. Vetrimaaran and Mr. Samuthirakani.
Earlier, the singing and dance performance of Kerala Mapla Muslim women enthralled the audience.
Published – April 04, 2025 10:10 pm IST
