From Vembanad with love: Short film shines on
Documentary The Red Box is part of the line-up at the Delhi Shorts International Festival, which begins on November 6.
Chemanna Petti (The Red Box), a short film based on a newspaper
report, has been selected for this year’s Delhi Shorts International
Film Festival. The fifth edition of the festival begins on November 6.
The 13.5-minute documentary by Pius Scaria Pottenkulam, looking at the
changing face of the Indian postal system through the life of a lonely
postal woman manning a one-of-a-kind post office in the country, is
based on a report ‘mail @Vembanad PO’ that appeared in The Hindu on
August 21, 2007. The report tells the story of Vembanad Kayal Post
Office, Pin 688006, perhaps the only one that covers a lake, and the
Extra Department (ED) clerk V.P. Seethamani, who dons many roles at this
post office.
The documentary tells its story in three segments, one taking a
nostalgic look at the old days when letters were part of a culture: the
long wait for the letters informing of an employment offer and those
from loved ones from far-off lands.
Enduring symbol
The Red Box is always a symbol of love, says the director. The second segment speaks of the history of communication and the postal system.
The final segment talks about the present situation, the fall of the
good old post offices because of a decline in letter-writing and the
arrival of countless modes of communication that have made institutions
such as the Vembanad Kayal PO look like fossils. The segment pans
through the life of Seethamani, who has been working as an ED clerk for
27 years.
From nearly 5,000 letters a day in its heyday, the traffic has come down
to not more than 150 letters a day at the post office, most of them
pensions, she says.
The film concludes with a long-cherished dream of Seethamani, who wants to “don a government uniform” before she retires.
Courtesy by The Hindu NEWS Today,
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Courtesy by The Hindu NEWS Today,
