Short
Film plays a quintessential role in the daily life of an ordinary human being.
It is an emotional tool that people can become part of as it not only forges
movements but breaks barriers and builds bonds also. Short Film as a multi dimensional medium, with
great potential to inform, educate, define, expose and transform social
realities has extensive power to play with a man’s psychology. Being the
cultural artifact of human life, it has carved a niche of its own by depicting
the eternal verities which are universal in nature. It has become the rich
heritage of man and we see the recordation of the heart- beats of the entire
human race in celluloid form. Sometimes it takes a new environment; sometimes
it takes a piece of literature or a short film to propel people to ponder over
more deeply about things of real flesh and blood. Everybody including a layman goes eloquent on
the topic ‘love’ as ‘loving can cost a lot but not
loving always costs more, and those who fear to love often find that
want of love is an emptiness that robs the joy from life’. But when it comes to
‘unrequited love’, it really exemplifies the words of the renowned metaphysical
poet Abraham Cowley
A mighty pain to love it is,
And 'tis a pain that pain to miss;
But of all pains, the greatest pain
It is to love, but love in vain.
Here comes an unforeseen
short film Monalisa weaving the
patterns of an unrequited love. The creative output edited, written and
directed by Sreedev T S Nair from Trivandrum city unfurls the infinite curse of
a lonely heart. If music is the food of love, we will have a tendency to play
on for long in abundance. It may sicken our appetite and so we travel to the
undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns. The very short film
by this budding director underlines the certitude that
Love, unrequited, robs me of my rest:
Love, hopeless love, my ardent soul encumbers:
Love, nightmare-like, lies heavy on my chest,
And weaves itself into my midnight slumbers!
Let’s have a glimpse of Sreedev’s Monalisa- a combo delight of jollity and adversity that transcends
all mortal faces and phases of life just like the portrayal of Monalisa made
immortal by Leonardo da vinci, the Italian Renaissance figure par excellence.
Love
is heaven but it can hurt you like hell. Still, we must never lose sight of
what we cannot see. Sometimes absence is required to feel a person’s presence
profoundly and the heroine Sruthi epitomizes this. Her love (unknown love) is
like a sinking ship and she senses it only when the waning light began painting
patterns in her room. Her inner landscape is in pursuit of that portrait which
was found lying with the dead body. The picture with smiling face as well as
eyes was paramount for artist Vivek than his own entity. The artistic bend of
Vivek’s inner imagination rendered clarity to the lines of his creative pencil
which in reality turned out to be the lucid depiction of Sruthi’s sparkling
eyes. Being in love with someone who doesn't
even know you exist is not the worst thing in the world. In fact, it is quite
the opposite. Almost like passing in a term paper that you know sucked, but
having that period of time where you haven't gotten your grade back yet -- that
kind of exhale where you haven't been rejected, although you pretty much know
how it's going to turn out. Vivek becomes a day in her dark night. Sruthi
yearns for an expression of love and in this arithmetic of love, one plus one
equals everything, and two minus one equals nothing. Here the melancholy of
Vivek’s demise becomes the object of desire for Sruthi. Everything doesn’t need to be said and Vivek
expressed his feelings of sparkling words via his lines of poetry and painting.
The lyrics endowed in fertile
imagination and great clarity of vision acts as a solace to any loving heart
that is hurt. Sruthi has emerged triumphant in finding the heart and soul of
Vivek albeit they are in different worlds, geographically different and
distant. Now she feels ‘more than ever seems it rich to die’as she has
amalgamated herself into his soul. This ecstasy which his soul is capable of
pouring forth ceases all her pain of unrequited love.
The short film Monalisa
destroys the pre-conceived notions of mere candle light and popcorn love.
Sreedev has successfully deconstructed the very semantics of usual romance in
his unusual way thereby glorifying the sanctity of Platonic love in an
‘invisible presence’. It is a praiseworthy endeavor from this entire crew that
they have given a new impression for love without discarding the expressions of
love – something that is never lost and if not reciprocated, it will flow back
and soften and will purify the heart for sure. The very name Monalisa connotes the
hopes and hopelessness of love. Here the short film alludes a love which we
have all known but never sensed or experienced. Sruthi satiates the queries of
her mind and the story ends with a note of optimism which the famous Victorian
poet Alfred Lord Tennyson is capable of imparting us-
I hold it true,
whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
than never to have loved at all.
You can close your eyes to the things you do not want to see, but
you cannot and can never close your heart to the things you do not want to
feel. Monalisa nurtures and instills
hope to many healing hearts in search of love with a metaphysical submility.
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| A day with Sree Dev after Asianet News channel event 'YOUTH TUBE' ( 2014 memoirs from Trivandrum Hyacinth By Sparza) |
