D. Bijukumar says his film Valiya Chirakulla Pakshikal was made to garner support for people whose lives have been blighted by Endosulfan

Twenty years ago, large birds with big wings had sprayed disease and death on the people of Kasaragod. Twenty years after, filmmaker D. Bijukumar returns to the killing fields to document the misery and resistance of the people in his film Valiya Chirakulla Pakshikal. Produced by A.K. Pillai, Valiya Chirakulla Pakshikal, was screened in the city on Friday. It will also be screened in the Malayalam Cinema Today section of the International Festival of Kerala.
Based on the tragedy of “victims of Endosulfan in Kasaragod”, the film talks to different participants involved in the issue. Beginning his film career with Saira, a movie that delved into human trafficking, the much-feted filmmaker has made several films that explore the journey of life and its travellers. His forte has been hard-hitting works that encompass contemporary issues. Excerpts from an interview with the filmmaker.
Your film is based on an ongoing struggle for justice and help for the people whose lives have been blighted by the spraying of Endosulfan…
The film, which was screened to full houses in Goa during the International Film Festival of India, was made to highlight the catastrophic outcome of a decision taken by a government agency to spray Endosulfan from helicopters to protect plantation crops in Kasaragod.
I have been following the issue quite closely through reports in the media and I have also been interacting with people who are on the frontline of the protest – doctors, environmentalists, parents, patients, activists and so on.
I felt a film should be made to highlight the plight of the people and to make the government listen to their woes. But I was not sure about how I should go about it. I wondered if it would become a documentary if I included interviews of the people who have been working for years to bring this to the mainstream. Nedumudi Venu, Suraj Venjaramoodu, Salim Kumar, Prakash Bare, Krishnan Balakrishnan and Anumol are some of the actors in the film.
So how did you resolve your confusion?
I decided to go with the flow of the film. I had spent a lot of time with photographer Madhuraj, who has documented extensively how Endosulfan destroyed the lives of many people and devastated the water resources and environment of Kasaragod. Kunchacko Boban’s nameless character is based on Madhuraj’s experiences but then it is not his story. There are interviews with pioneers of the protest, people like Leelakumari, an agricultural officer in Kasaragod, who was perhaps the first to file a case against the indiscriminate spraying of Endosulfan. She had lost her brother to cancer and she suspected that it had something to do with the pesticide. We also spoke to doctors, activists and the parents of children with different problems; it is a tragedy that can move even the most cynical people.
Shot in Kasaragod and Canada, the movie has been a topic of discussion for some time now.
I wanted to shoot in all the four seasons of the year. So we began during the monsoon and shot during the summer and spring. Winter scenes were picturised in Canada, which depicts the Stockholm Convention that took a decision to ban the pesticide.
The film has also helped to bring much needed support for the people…
That is the intention of the film. Although the government has provided some help, the official figures are misleading. The magnitude of the issue has not been understood or addressed. Even today, households are struggling to pay off loans that were taken to treat their children; they are threatened with eviction notices from banks…
There are parents who cannot go to work because there is no one at home to look after their children… In addition, many parents worry about what would happen to their children after their time. Many vexing issues need solutions and at the earliest.
As a small measure, we rented a house to function as a day care centre where the parents know their children will be cared for when they go to earn a living. Actor Suresh Gopi helped to construct a house for an indigent family. I want to raise the awareness about the problems of the people so that the world knows that this is a disaster; one that has been caused by the authorities.
There has been accusations of the film being politically motivated…
The problem is also political and the movie does not shy away from that. There is a political statement in the film. I was harassed by activists of a certain party but that has not deterred me from depicting the real events as it unfolded during our shooting. For me, the only motive is to ensure that the world understands the calamity that has befallen the people of rural Kasaragod and to see if I can help in their efforts to secure justice and rehabilitation.