Schiavo film made in record time
2006-03-03 12:00
New Delhi - An Indian film maker has
attempted a world record by finishing a 74-minute feature,
loosely based on Terri Schiavo's protracted right-to-die battle
that gripped the United States in 2005, in 2 hours and 14
minutes.
Engineer-turned-director Jayaraj's "Atbhutam" (Wonder)
tries to capture the drama of mercy-killing in the last
hour-and-a-half in the life of a US-based Indian-born
playwright suffering from pancreatic cancer.
"I felt the power. When we started at 11:46, the whole
crew was in a trance ... a kind of invisible energy, and we
were just flying one from one sequence to the other,"
45-year-old Jayaraj told Reuters by phone from the city of
Hyderabad.
"And just before the last shot, when my associate said 'one
shot left', that's when I realised my dream is finally going to
come true."
The record-breaking attempt has been forwarded to the
Guinness Book of World Records with authentification letters
from Ramanaidu, himself listed as the most prolific producer
with 110 films, and an official from the Andhra Pradesh state
government, who were present for filming.
The hospital
Jayaraj opted for an Oregon hospital as his setting since
the state's 1997 "Death with Dignity Act" made
physician-assisted suicide legal.
Terri Schiavo, a Florida woman brain-damaged for 15 years,
and her husband fought a protracted legal battle that gripped
the United States before her feeding tube was removed in March,
2005.
Jayaraj approached studios in the United States and Britain
five years ago with a story on mercy killing inspired by a
euthanasia plea on behalf of an Indian chess player and
muscular dystrophy patient by his mother who wanted to donate
his organs.
"I originally wanted to make the movie in less than 10
hours. They all discouraged me since the producers couldn't
imagine a movie getting completed in such a short time," said
Jayaraj, who produced the movie, filmed in December, himself.
Atbhutam is scheduled for an end-March release.
The Schiavo saga reaffirmed the multiple award winning
director's belief his was an idea whose time has come.
"The Schivao story where we had a husband supporting
euthanasia and the patient's parents opposing it, inspired me
to do the story again," he said.
Atbhutam portrays the dilemma of the playwright's
attorney wife, who supports his wish to die, and his old
parents who were unaware of such a thing until they meet him in
the hospital.
Jayaraj, a veteran of 26 films including Atbhutam, has
won critical acclaim for his brand of experimental cinema.
He avoided multi-camera shoots for his world record attempt
and instead used three separate cameras which he moved from one
setting to the other.
"We'd planned things, including the lighting, in such
minute details, that within a couple of minutes of canning one
shot, the lighting for the next scene was switched on and the
floor was made ready," said S Kumar, the film's director of
photography.