FILM FESTIVAL AND BEST FILM CRITIC COMPETITION - 23 November, 2022

FILM FESTIVAL AND BEST FILM CRITIC                        COMPETITION 

A film festival and a film critic competition were held by the Film Club of Government College of Teacher Education, Thycaud, Thiruvananthapuram, on 23 November, 2022 at the UGC hall of the campus. By 3.30 pm, the student teachers and teachers of GCTE assembled at the UGC hall and the film screening began. Two short films were chosen for the screening - Aasai directed by Sam and Tippen Box directed by Karthik Gopal. Both were Tamil short films with English subtitles. The club had the plan to show the Disney animated movie Encanto as well; however the technical difficulties did not make this happen.

AASAI

Aasai takes us to a time when cell phones were a luxury and speaking to somebody over it would cost us a lot. The film revolves around the story of Selvam, a small boy who works in a grocery store. He lives far away from his home and misses his mother a lot. Selvam yearns to speak to his mother and listen to her voice. His dream from then on is to save whatever penny he can to have a five minute phone call with his mother. One sees how rigorously Selvam practices to convey all that he wishes to tell his mother within the five minutes timeline. 

Glaring issues of the time like Child Labour find representation in this short film. Selvam is deprived of a happy childhood. When the other children of his age go to schools, study and socialize with other children, Selvam is forced to work day and night. The spark of hope and innocence in Selvam is the lesson that the audience learn. No matter how hard our life conditions are, we must not let them bent us down in life. The short film, which is set in a dull and mundane atmosphere, may not appeal visually to its spectators, but the message conveyed and the performance of the actors make it a must watch.

TIPPEN BOX 

The short film Tippen Box, written and directed by Karthik Gopal, is an 18 minutes short film that centers a school boy whose greatest wish is to have a 'Tippen Box' of his own. Love, grief, sacrifice, hope and a myriad of other emotions are contained within this piece of art. 

The protagonist of the short film is a school boy who studies in the fifth grade. He hails from a poor family and the greatest luxury that he can think of is a good tiffin box. He wishes to sit with his friends in the classroom and have lunch with them during the lunch break. All his friends carry fancy designed and colourful tiffin boxes; he is ashamed to bring his old, worn out tiffin box to the class. As a result, the boy is forced to run a long distance to his house once the bell for the lunch break rings. He often gets punishment for coming late after the break. It is his embarassment to bring his tiffin box to the class that forces the boy to run all along to his home to have lunch and then come back. Hope dawns on him when his English teacher announces a test paper, the high scorer of which would get a tiffin box as a reward. He works hard and studies well for the test; however he could not come up as the topper. His friend, who already has a good tiffin box, wins this one as well. The protagonist, though sad and devastated, does not stop and he continues to run. 

The greatest lesson that we gain out of this 18 minutes short film is that, as teachers, we should be kind hearted to students and should try to understand them. Not all students come from the same social background. The success of a teacher is in realising what each student really needs and thus catering to it. 

With the screening of these two short films, the film festival came to an end. Review and critical comments on both the films were invited from the part of the student teachers.