Indian expat in Dubai wins several film industry awards

A Malayalam film that tells the love story of a small boy and his grand father written by a Dubai based story teller has bagged several film awards in India, including the National Award in 2015 and the best feature film in the 22nd International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFKA). Joshi Mangalathu, an Human Resources Manager in Hermon Middle East is the winner of the Best Indian Screenplay writer for Ottal, a Malayalam movie focused on child labour.

Living in the UAE for more than two decades, Joshi has been a vivid reader who was attracted by a lot of classical books and novels brought home by his father, through a book club. His father, Sreedharan, a book lover gifted him with books instead of expensive toys and is heading the village library in Korani, Attingal, Kerala. Reading, singing and watching movies has been his pastime, even after coming to Dubai, where there are many other avenues of entertainment and time pass.

In the just concluded International Film Festival in Thiruvananthapuram, the movie Ottal (A wicker basket to trap and catch  fish) directed by Jayaraj, got the Suvarna Chakoram, first time a Malayalam movie has been selected in this category. Best Film of the international Federation of film critics (FIPRESCI), Best Malayalam film of the network for the promotion of Asian Cincema (NETPAC), Audience Poll award. At the Mumbai Film Festival it got the Film Social Impact Award and Children Feature -Golden Gate Way award. The movie is about the relationship between the grandpa (played by Kumarakam Vasudevan, a fisherman with no acting experience, spotted by Director Jayaraj to lend authenticity to the role) and the boy (Ashanth).

The Suvarna Chakoram (Golden Prize_ includes Indian Rs 1.5 million, cash award, certificate and memento. "Ottal", swept the Kerala film festival awards through its strong cinematic language. Ottal is the first screenplay of Joshi, which is realized as a film. Many other screenplays that he attempted earlier did not materialize into films. He is also a regular singer in the cultural shows in Dubai and now he is focused only on writing. Three Malayalam film directors have already contacted Joshi to write screenplays for their movies and he started working on them. The screenplay is an adaption of Chekovs short story, Vanka, about child labour.

While there are many Keralite expatraites who are closely associated with the film industry, this is the first time a writer from Dubai is getting National Award for best screenplay. “I write in the early morning and many nostalgic feelings of an average expatriate comes to my mind. In writing this screenplay too are influenced by the thoughts about my country and people.” Kuttanad, the farm capital of Alappuzha, is home to innocent farmers and the agrarian culture of Kerala, which is vanishing now.

Joshy, who is a single also, was trying to impress the film director with another screenplay, but after a long delay due to the directors preoccupation with other projects, he assigned Joshy to adapt the famous short story of Checkov to a Kuttanadu milieu and it worked well, as the movie keeps on bagging awards and applauses from various corners. Unlike major commercial movies, nobody noticed the movie during the production and post production stages, but when the film won the National Award, he was surrounded by TV cameras and received a heroes welcome. Now he owes everything to the talented director Jayaraj, who has to his credit many good movies.

Joshy tells the story an orphaned boy from a farmer’s family due to suicide by his farmer father and it is his grand father, who takes care of the boy. In his little world of lake waters, ducks and the rice fields of Kuttanadu surrounding the Alappuzha district of Kerala, he was send to work in the cracker factories in Tamil Nadu, by a dubious driver. Though the boy dreams to go to school and take care of his grand father, he ends up as a child laborer and ultimately his only dream is to rejoin with his grand father.

Joshy who is busy with his job finished the screenplay within one month and now the movie is going to various international film festivals. “While I was studying in Kottayam i got a chance to visit kuttanad area many times. That wonderful memories was in my mind even after many years...! so that memories also had given me a courage to write this screenplay on the backdrop of kuttanad,”  he says. He is living Dubai with his family, wife Sandhya Joshi, and children, Nayan Joshi (sixth standard) and Neel Joshi (4th Standard) Indian High School, Dubai

It is a heart touching topic and such movies are sidelined by a strong film lobby because a fisherman from Alappuzha is competing with superstars and hence the movie team has legally posted the movie in Reelmonk.com where the movie is available for international movies in the High Difinition and normal versions.

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