Blockbuster movie ‘Premam’, even after winning many compliments along with the tag of the most popular movie of the year, failed to make it to the Kerala State Film Awards under any category. The Jury Chairman, Mohan, alleged that the Director had taken a lazy attitude to filming the movie. Alphonse Puthren, the director of ‘Premam’, who had refused to react to Mohan’s comments, has taken to Facebook to express his response and is clearly angry.
In an interview given to The Hindu in March, Kerala State Film Awards Jury Chairman, Mohan, had said that ‘Premam’ did not make it to the Awards as it lacked a form or structure and seemed as if it had been made in haste, inviting varied responses from fellow filmmakers and the public.
In his reply to Mohan, Alphonse has described how he is a rebel when it comes to filmmaking.
“Structure is man-made. When I have to talk about a feeling that is "love", love is not a feeling alone, it is a creator of feelings. It can help you see magic and miracles and it can make you feel deep black darkness too. So I was taking a film in which I was officially comparing a butterfly to love. Now sir...when you judge a butterfly with man-made structures. I couldn't relate to steady shots and logic. Because however you try to watch the butterfly you won't be able to find logic in its movement. So my shots and making might have been logic less. So forgive me for breaking the norms and structure of film-making for my small film,” he said in his Facebook post.
He further explained how the movie was fragmented into four parts ranging from the birth of George, his ‘caterpillar’ stage to how he overcomes his ‘Pupa stage’ and finally transforms into a butterfly.
He pointed to this as the structure of the movie as far as he was concerned and made a series of sarcastic comments about how he was thankful to him for not considering any of the ‘Premam’ crew for the awards. Puthren continued his post by elaborating on the mechanics of a love story in which he would let the hero go behind the heroine till the end as it was love that was being displayed and not politics. He even mentioned how his movie was happily received by the audience and boasted about the number of days his movie ran in theaters across Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
“I'm the audience and I do films that entertain me. I'm not a wannabe filmmaker who thinks that I shouldn't do this or that because the award committee won't like it. I don't play safe. I'll break some rules. I'm replying because you degraded my film, my work and my fellow people with your ignorance sir. I was really sad and was depressed for a month because of your comment about my creation. I'm reacting after a month because my ignorance shouldn't make you feel that you are correct. Everyone has a perspective. So be open to every perspective”, his post said as he asked Mohan to avoid his films next time as well if this was the criteria.
Alphonse requested Mohan to make more movies like ‘Pakshe’ as he, as an audience, would love to watch it and concluded by thanking and wishing him a Happy Vishu.