Joy Mathew’s debut film ‘Shutter’ brings the lives of Indian labourers into focus

If you grew up in India in the eighties, chances are you recall late director John Abraham’s, Malayalam film, ‘Amma Ariyan.’

The story, which revolved around the events following the death of a Naxalite (radical communist), earned the filmmaker the special jury award and subsequently found a place in the British Film Institute’s list of top ten Indian films. This film also earned plaudits for a young actor, Joy Mathew, who played the protagonist in the story.

After a hiatus of more than two decades, Mathew returns to film with his debut directorial, ‘Shutter,’ a film about Indian labourers in the Gulf, which he also wrote. The film features Srinivasan, Lal, Vinay Fort and Sajitha Madathil and will be screened at the Dubai International Film Festival on Monday at 6pm (its world premiere) and Wednesday at 2.45pm; both screenings are at the Mall of the Emirates.

“Rasheed is your average Malayali NRI [non-resident Indian] working in the Gulf,” said Mathew in a phone interview recently. “He is on vacation in his hometown, Calicut in order to solemnise his daughter’s engagement,” said Mathew, a playwright and recipient of the Indian Sahitya Academy and Sangeet Natak Academy awards.

Rasheed has invested in a commercial property next to his house which he has let out to store owners, except for one room.

“He hopes to use this room to start a business on his final return from the Gulf,” continued Mathew.

During his holiday this room becomes a meeting place for Rasheed and his friends, where they bond over drinks every night. But things take an unexpected turn and Rasheed is caught in a complex and embarrassing situation that he wants to extricate himself from.

“This film exposes the voyeuristic society of Kerala,” continued Mathews, who has also produced ‘Uyirthelneppu,’ a TV movie directed by Shyam Prasad that bagged four state awards.

Malayalam actor director Lal plays Rasheed, while Srinivasan plays a wandering filmmaker in search of a producer. The story happens over two nights and a day.

“It was a great experience working with these two reputed actors. This will be a landmark role in Lal’s career,” said Mathew, whose love for acting dates back to his school days.

“In college I received the Best Actor award for four consecutive years under Calicut University,” he said.

Mathew had hoped to pursue acting at India’s premier institute, the Film & Television Institute of India, FTII (Pune), but was not admitted.

He was disappointed but, not one to give up on his passion, Mathew attended classes at FTII for more than a year until he was found out.

“By then I had learnt all I needed to know about filmmaking,” laughed Mathew.

“I even acted in my friends’ short films and wrote scripts for them.”

‘Shutter,’ grew from a short film at the insistence of his cinematographer friend Hari Nair.

The background score is composed by BB Sam and Jacob Panicker. One of the songs, ‘Ee Rathriyil,’ is based on the poem, ‘Tonight I can write the saddest line,’ by Chilean poet Pablo Neruda and is composed by Shahabaz Aman. Supporting the main cast are 40 theatre actors, including three from Dubai.