Close encounter with a Star

Last day I went to watch a Malayalam movie, "Katha thudarum" (The story will continue), directed by Sathyan Anthikad. It is a nice movie, simple and one that has a story worth to be told, a rarity these days considering the cinematic excuses churned out of the movie industry in Kerala. I was in Thalassery waiting for an email and had to kill the time. The movie hall offered a good refuge from the hot climate as it was air conditioned.

The rush was minimal because two big movies where being screened in nearby theaters. When I entered the movie was started and I somehow found a comfortable seat scouting in pitch darkness. The movie was coming around beautifully.. It was the story of a Hindu girl marrying a Muslim guy without permission from parents and are ostracized from families, living independent. The guy is killed and the wife and their small kid comes to road... and as usual Jayaram, the good Samaritan rickshaw driver helps them out...

The person sitting next to me was quite a disturbance, unrest and mumbling something inaudibly, but eyes glued to the silver screen. A crowd scene was going on... suddenly the guy give a very small jump from his seat, turned to me and said, "I was in that scene...". Now I knew why he was acting like a dumb-ass.

"I had worked in this movie for about 20 days" he told me.

"Are you there in any more scenes?" I asked.

"Ya , I am there in some more".

Through out the whole movie he was searching for crowd scenes because only in such scenes he had a chance to appear. And other times he was showering movie trivia on me, about locations and co actors.

During Intermission he shown me the photos he had taken with Innocent, Jayaram and all. He was a man of around 50, lean, around 5'6", a beard trimmed neatly wearing a good looking shirt, a lined jeans and with a small hunch back... He had acted in other movies also, he did a bit scene in Pappi Appacha.. where he helps Innocent when the latter is stabbed by the villain. He has also done the English movie from which Thilakan was kicked out...

After the interval he was able to locate himself in the background of a scene... some serious, emotional stuff is going on and he walks in the background from one end of the frame to another end, half naked, with a Lungi on and a ladder in his hands, probably as a coconut tree climber. He was very happy that I could recognize him... and I was also happy .. it is not an every day occurrence, watching a movie sitting next to a 'star' even if it is a shooting star.