Seriously! When a major portion of our millennial population, like myself, is working in some IT company or other, why are there so few movies on their life? Especially in Malayalam.
When I was finishing my engineering, sitting with two IT call letters, I called my cousin, who was already working as a software engineer, to find out what I was getting into. At that time I did not know anything about my artistic talents, and my family was all excited that I at least had a job. So IT was the way to go.
“Have you ever heard of someone look up with pride and say that they want to become an IT employee?”
I called her up, and she told me, that she did “projects”. What the *%#$£! does it mean to do projects! I get it now, but then! I mean what does Information Technology even mean! I was in an Engineering college and the only project I knew was our sixth semester mini project and final year project, both of which has nothing to do with what an IT company does.
What is IT Life Like?
I did not know then why I wanted to know all that. But now I do. Think of the time when you saw a policemen standing on the street. We might never have seen them, but we know what their daily life is, or at least have some visuals in our head on how their life could be.
But ask someone (outside the IT industry) what they know of IT people, these are the three things that you’ll hear:
- They wear fine clothes
- They make a lot of money
- They speak good English (or maybe not)
Jokes apart, this is sad. Have you ever heard of someone looking up with pride and say that they want to become an IT employee? But you hear people say so about becoming a police officer.
I wanted to know what the daily life of IT job was but there was no sources available.
This is What Stories Are For
Stories narrate how someone walked into something unfamiliar and came out successful (or not if it’s a tragedy).
By listening to that story, or watching it as a movie, or seeing it as a stick figure on a wall painting, we live through that dangerous journey without actually being in danger (when the story is told well that is). We empathise with the hero, or heroine, and aspire to be like them.
Where is this in Malayalam films? The only two movies that I can remember is Rithu and Minnaminnikoottam. Rithu was the closest movie that talked of IT life. No comments on the later for reasons obvious to everyone who has seen the movie.
This is what I believe. It’s simple.
Art makes life meaningful, beautiful and helps us navigate our life.
Art makes things special. And art helps us live life, by holding a mirror that shows us where we are, where we could go and what we could become.
Hence My Debut Movie
Munnariv, my debut Malayalam feature film, the first ever to be shot on an iPhone, talks of the life of an IT Engineer. I worked in TCS for almost three years before resigning and becoming a full time writer and filmmaker. I wish Munnariv existed then. The story of Munnariv is another story for another time. For now, know that it is the story of a work from home Malayali IT engineer, who starts hearing the voice of his daughter from the future.
Being a software engineer is a job nonetheless. They help build things that get things done. And like every activity in the world, there are people who are good at it, and want to do that for a living. Let us inspire them or at least not make their life miserable.
By taking the risk on ourselves, of making a movie on something that no one else talks of, and hopefully make money doing it, we hope that it inspires mainstream film producers to make more movies on IT people. I hope that Munnariv becomes a source for some 20 year old with an IT call letter to see what their life could be.
Let us hope that one day we get to hear someone say with pride, that they want to become an IT engineer.
