바카라My biggest wish has been to see my movie hit the local theatres and run for at least a few days,바카라 says Dr Siju Vijayan with an infectious smile, at his home in Aroor. The filmmaker and homeopathic doctor has been in a wheelchair since 2017. Vijayan, who suffers spinal muscle atrophy, has a positive, almost enthusiastic attitude towards life. 바카라My condition (spinal muscular atrophy) was detected when I was five. I would find it difficult to walk properly. I would fall frequently. And this alarmed my parents. So, they took me to a doctor, who recommended a muscle biopsy, which revealed that I was suffering from spinal muscular atrophy.바카라 The doctor had initially said that he would lose the ability to walk by age 12. But, as fate would have it, Vijayan made it through.
바카라There were times when I needed help to walk (hold on to another person for support),바카라 Vijayan recalls. 바카라That바카라s when my friends would step in. They바카라d be happy to lend me a hand, especially if I had to get on a bus, where the footboard was placed high. My friends and my family have been my lifeline,바카라 he says. Vijayan took to films after he was mesmerised by a movie poster. 바카라The movie Amaram (1991), starring Mammootty, had just been released. I was probably in class seven or eight. My brother and I were returning from school. He suggested we stop for tea, and so, we entered a tea shop, where posters of a lot of plays and movies were put up,바카라 he reminisces. 바카라While this wasn바카라t out of the ordinary, what caught my eye was an artist바카라s rendering of the poster of Amaram바카라a vertical portrait of the lead Mammootty taking his boat to sea, against a black backdrop. It was so beautiful.바카라
He then went on to recreate several such movie posters. 바카라Art was like a release for me. It wasn바카라t just movie posters, but also sceneries and portraits. I enjoyed it,바카라 he says. His drawings and art works were praised by teachers, parents and admired by peers. 바카라That certainly felt good,바카라 says Vijayan. After eighth grade, movement started becoming more and more difficult for him. 바카라I had to increasingly rely on help from friends and family to be able to walk from one place to the other, access transportation and so on.바카라 Vijayan recalls his father taking him across the river from his home in the hamlet of Aroor to Panangad, a suburb in Kochi, via boat. 바카라My father was quite particular about our academics. He would ask us to recall what was taught the previous day, during the boat ride to school,바카라 he recalls.
After completing grade 12, Vijayan enrolled at Maharajas College, Ernakulam for BSc. and then went on to study BHMS (Bachelors in Homeopathic Medicine and Surgery) from Shree Vidyadhiraja Homeopathic Medical College in Thiruvananthapuram. Navigating through college life wasn바카라t much of a challenge, as he had trusted friends who helped him. But things changed when he came back home after completing college. 바카라Inactivity led my condition to deteriorate quicker, and so, I bought a wheelchair in 2015 and by 2017, I became fully dependent on it,바카라 he says.
He fondly recalls his first tryst with film making, 바카라A college roommate (at Vidhyadhiraja) bought a hand-held video camera바카라the one where you could put in a small cassette for recording (a DV camcorder). I was very thrilled and wrote a script for a short film titled, Hostelil oru divasam (one day at a hostel). However, that movie was never shot바카라a common friend of mine burnt it when I stepped out. I am not sure whether he meant it as a joke, but the script was lost forever.바카라
In 2012, Vijayan wrote and directed a short film called Anamika바카라 The Prey? The movie premiered at the Lohithadas National Short Film Festival in the same year. The movie highlighted the various kinds of harassment and bias women tend to face, with Anamika, a young girl, reliving lives of real-life victims of violence like Soumya, who was brutally raped and murdered in 2011 and Liji, who was murdered by her cousin in 2012. In 2014, Vijayan wrote and directed Novu, a 15-minute short film and in 2019, he scripted and directed his first feature, Insha, the tale of a wheelchair ridden girl, who wished to see the ocean. 바카라The movie was slated for release in March 2020. Everything was ready. However, the pandemic postponed its release and about a year later, in March 2021, the movie was released in theatres and soon after on Neestream, an OTT platform,바카라 says Vijayan.
The script of Insha was then turned into a book. 바카라The book Wheel to Reel was officially launched in December 2024,바카라 he says. The book is part of his story, weaved in with the script of Insha. Vijayan started the shoot of his second feature (yet to be released) Return to Kashmir in 2023. The shoot has been completed and the movie is now in post-production stage. For this, Vijayan is trying to raise funds by trying to sell as many copies of Wheel to Reel as possible. 바카라Our country isn바카라t really disabled-friendly,바카라 says the director, who travelled along the length of the country to shoot the film, which is the story of a displaced Kashmiri Pandit바카라s return to his home. 바카라A lot of hotels, especially budget hotels, do not have elevators. And the more economical rooms are on the top floor. At one such instance, me and another crew member had to sleep in the car for the night,바카라 he recalls. 바카라At a lot of places, accessibility is limited as there are no ramps, or the ramps aren바카라t wide enough or aren바카라t on level with the ground, which defeats their purpose.바카라 Nothing, however, seems to deter Vijayan바카라s spirit. 바카라I do feel uncomfortable when people look/stare at me바카라and more often, I am not able to make out if it is sympathy or empathy. This is something I dislike,바카라 he says.
The director might be bound to a wheelchair, but his dreams certainly aren바카라t.
Sumitra Nair is an independent journalist based in Kochi, Kerala.
