Thanzeer was a mere salesman at a CD shop till he met the magic frames of 'Cinema Paradiso' by Italian filmmaker Giuseppe Tornatore seven years back. The 1988 classic which narrates the tale of a filmmaker's recollection of his childhood when he fell in love with the movies at his village theatre, went deep into the soul of the 17-year-old and changed his entire world.
Just like the protagonist Toto (Salvatore Di Vita), who formed a deep friendship with the theatre's projectionist, Thanzeer too started loving films, normally rated above the sensibility of a boy who could not pass SSLC.
Bitten by the film bug, Thanzeer started collecting classics and now the number of films in his possession has crossed 15,000. At present he is an assistant at the archive section of Kerala State Chalachitra Academy (KSCA) on temporary basis and is all set to enter the tinsel world as an assistant to a front-line Malayalam filmmaker.
"It was Kribuna Biswas, a college teacher, who asked me to watch 'Cinema Paradiso'. I can't explain what happened to me after that. I watched the film several times and definitely it changed my sensibility. Then I started watching more such films, which I later realized were classics," he says.
His love for the film made him name his Facebook page as Cinema Pardiso Thanzeer. But as a salesman, watching those classics was not easy. His colleagues at the shop, big fans of Rajnikanth and Vijay films were reluctant to switch over to the new taste. "So I played some popular films like 'City of God'. Later they started asking for that kind of films," he says with his characteristic smile.
Even after this, film watching was not easy when he was living at Ambalathara, on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram city. "I was waiting at the house of my mother's sister and would wait till late night as it should not disturb them."
He thinks, watching films is in his blood as his mother Shajida was a great fan of all films on Doordarshan irrespective of the language at their small house at Balaramapuram. "Those films instilled in me the love for films", he remembers his days with mother and two sisters.
As his expertise in narrating classics spread as word of mouth, he became a hot property at his shop. Soon, he became the friend of all who loved good cinema and the movie buffs across the state including noted filmmakers came to him for seeking opinion on international films.
Even great directors like Giresh Kasaravally and Jabbar Patel are in the friends’ list of this great cinema lover.
Ang Lee, Taiwanese director who shot into fame with 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon', wanted to meet Tanzeer when he came to Kerala a few months back. "I thought it was a prank played on me when a friend told me about this. Later only I realized it was true".
However, the hard realities at his home front forced him to take the job of a salesman at a Supermarket in Saudi Arabia two years back. But the frames lured him back to Kerala and he came back in less than two months from Riyadh owing a debt of Rs 1 Lakh.
Thanzeer was at cross roads literally and then Cinema Minister K B Ganesh Kumar who learned about his passion for cinema invited him for a meeting which opened his doors to KSCA. Like Toto, he is also dreaming of making good films. As a first step he would enter as assistant in a film which would commence shooting in the first week of September.
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