In Russia, author gets close to his characters

Thiruvananthapuram: The audience at the Kalabhavan Theatre on Thursday remained silent when they saw on the screen their favourite novelist Perumbadavom Sreedharan sitting on the banks of Neva river at St Petersburg in Russia. He placed his novel Oru Sankeerthanam Pole (Like a Psalm) on the stone bench and spoke in an emotional voice “I thank this city for keeping alive the memories of Dostoevsky and Anna for me.I have nothing to give you in return, but just this book. Let the sighs of Dostoevsky turn its pages and let the blue sky read it.”
It was the preview of ‘In Return: Just a Book’, a docu-feature film, directed by Shiny Jacob Benjamin, inspired by Sreedharan’s Novel on Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky. Shot in St Petersburg and Kerala, the film interweaves the documentary and fiction by linking two writers, Dostoevsky and Sreedharan, by taking a quantum jump across 150 years.
The film takes Sreedharan on his first ever visit to Russia and St Petersburg, the setting of his novel, which he imagined out of nothing but his readings of Russian writers, including Dostoevsky. It follows him as he traverses the city looking at its great landmarks, visiting Dostoevsky’s Museum, and recreating what he has crafted in his novel in 1993. He shares the real-life story of how the traumatic and troubled personality of Dostoevsky has inspired him to write the novel that dealt with 21 days in the life of Dostoevsky, when he fell in love with his stenographer Anna Snitkina. It is presented through brief face-to-face encounters and voice-overs, accompanied by enacted moments of the novel by Russian actors Oksana Karmishina and Vladimir Postnikov.
In the film Sreedharan immerses himself in the city recollecting Dostoevsky and his intense fictional encounter with him.
“What you just saw on the screen are the best moments in my life which I never thought would come true. Though it was my dream destination since childhood, I have never visited Russia. The city of St Petersburg is no different from what I imagined 23 years ago to write about my favourite writer and his love. I sensed the sighs of Dostoevsky and heartbeats of Anna there. He walked beside me and we wandered through the streets of St Petersburg,” Sreedharan told TOI after the preview.
Shiny said that it was a great challenge for her to create the film though the idea of the writer’s first-ever journey to St Petersburg has been in her mind for years. “He had never set foot there even after his novel was in its 23rd year and 61st edition,” she said.
The film which was scripted by writer Paul Zacharia and conceptualised by Ratheesh C Nair (honoray consul of Russia) was produced by Baby Mathew Somatheeram. It has been selected to compete in the Indian Panorama section at International Film Festival of India.
Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala, BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan, actor Vijaya Raghavan were among those attended the preview.