Documentary unspools the life and times of writer Zacharia

For years, writer Paul Zacharia has sent characters out into the world – through villages, cities, beliefs, arguments and memories.

Key points

• On Tuesday, the hour-long film played to a packed house at the Kairali-Sree-Nila theatre complex in Thiruvananthapuram.
• The film has been produced by Achu Ullatil and K M Gafoor.
• The film, created over almost a year and a half, additionally sees Zacharia revisit ideas such as Christianity, communism and misogyny.
• Afterwards, we worked together as colleagues and eventually became good friends, Shiny states.
• Watching the completed documentary on the major screen, he states, offered him an "unusual experience".

In the documentary titled 'Zacharia', filmmaker Shiny Benjamin follows that trail, beginning at Urulikunnam in Kottayam, where the writer was born, and moving through Mysuru, Bengaluru, Delhi and the plenty of places that entered his life along the way.

As one place gives way to another, stories, friendships, politics and memories surface with them, until the documentary begins to feel less like a portrait and more like travelling through the pages of a life.

"I grew up reading his stories. Afterwards, we worked together as colleagues and eventually became good friends, " Shiny states.

"I knew him not just as a writer, but as someone deeply engaged with society and politics. So when his friends began thinking regarding making a documentary, it naturally came to me."

For context, the film has been produced by Achu Ullatil and K M Gafoor. Discussions continued for months before filming began. The real challenge was deciding what could fit into an hour.

"He has written so much, travelled so widely and experienced so much. We had almost 40 hours of footage, " she states. "But we were clear that this was not a conventional profile. The focus was on Zacharia as a writer – how he sees writing, his engagement with politics and society, his travels and the individuals who influenced him."

Meanwhile, the film, created over almost a year and a half, additionally sees Zacharia revisit ideas such as Christianity, communism and misogyny.

Facing the camera for a shoot, nevertheless, was unfamiliar ground for Zacharia. "When the idea first came to me, I felt rather inhibited. Pen and paper have always been my world, " he notes.

Shiny, he recalls, rapidly put him at ease. " She informed me, 'You won't feel out of place. You will be comfortable, and we will keep things easy-going.' I informed her I could not act. She remarked, 'You don't have to act. Just answer the questions.' That was how she convinced me. She and her team eventually created magic."

Watching the completed documentary on the major screen, he states, offered him an "unusual experience". "I felt great joy seeing my life recreated so creatively on the major screen. What struck me most was the way my stories and my life moved together, almost like a work of fiction, " Zacharia notes.

"Maybe one day I will write an autobiography, or perhaps somebody will write my biography. But those would remain words on paper. This is a digital flight, something only a camera, along with music and all the other elements of cinema, can create."

Taken together, the developments around documentary unspools the life and times of writer Zacharia point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.