THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: For the best part of the local agitation in Vilappilsala during the past one year, R Biju has been closely following it with his camera. The difficulties being faced by the people in Vilappil, the changes the land underwent, the destruction of agriculture, the contamination of their water sources, the agitations that suddenly gained strength resulting in the shut down of the waste treatment plant and the anticipation of the people, now that the plant is closed. All the moments of the Vilappilsala agitation and the reasons behind it have been picturised in Biju’s documentary, ‘Unarunna Vilappilsala’, which is ready for screening across the State. A freelance photographer, Biju is part of a film movement too. He is the secretary of the Banner Film Society. But it is his association with the agitators at Vilappil panchayat that inspired him to capture the village’s tragedy on camera, he says. Biju is the convenor of the Solidarity Committee to Vilappilsala Agitation led by sculptor Kanayi Kunhiraman. ‘’I have been seeing the struggle of the people and the land for many years. I thought it is not a local issue, at many places and even around the world, solid waste management is a grave issue. It puts some section of the society to bear the larger waste generated by fellow beings in the same society; which is wrong. I made the documentary to screen it in other places in Kerala so that they might understand what the people at Vilappil went through,’’ Biju says. The 30-minute documentary talks about the way some 50 lorries enter the village in the wee hours. While people in the city wake up to a clean city, the people in Vilappil wake up to the sound of the garbage trucks and to the stench of the garbage. Biju says he wants to take his documentary to places where there are such waste treatment units. While the cinematography has been done by Biju himself, the editing has been done by Sreekanth Venugopal and K R Bivinlal.
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