Malayalam film ‘Ozhiyathey’ highlights police action against schoolboys during the Emergency

Farook Abdulrahiman’s film Ozhiyathe is based on an incident which took place on a day in August, 50 years ago, during the Emergency. Nineteen boys from a government school at Koduvayoor in Palakkad district, all students of classes eight and nine — barely aged between 13 and 16 — were allegedly arrested and placed in remand for 21 days.

To this day, Farook says, the mother of one of the boys has no idea what happened. “Rightfully so, she wonders why the cops came for the boy because, according to her, one has to be a thief or commit some crime to be arrested. And these were just kids. The children too had no idea what their crime was.” Of the 19, 14 are alive.

It was one of the horrors of the Emergency that went unnoticed. “Because the boys belong to economically weaker sections and their parents are agriculturists. They had no choice because they did not have the means to question the authorities.” Farook underscores the arbitrariness of the police action and the denial of basic rights. “The children were not even allowed to eat, and they were beaten.”

He adds that the reason for the action against the children, allegedly, was that the school was affiliated with the Left and so wanted to steer it towards the Kerala Students Union, the student wing of the Indian National Congress. “It was a ‘political’ problem for which innocent kids were made the pawns. With the Emergency in place, no questions were asked. Some of the top cops were from the area.”

Insight Creations, makers of the film, heard the story when one of the ‘boys’, sexagenarian Narayanan Vazhakkode, told about the incident to the film’s producer. “He met him at a film festival when Narayanan narrated the story to the producer. Initially, the plan was to make a documentary, but then we ended up making a feature film.” Insight is primarily a producer of regional documentaries.

Research was easy since 14 of the surviving students narrated their experiences. With an eye on accuracy, for instance, in terms of the dialect, the actors were chosen from the area.

“The lives of these 19 people, as they knew it, changed forever. It impacted not only them but also their families…it literally changed the trajectory of their lives!” says the State Award-winning director. This film, they hope, is some comfort or at least acknowledgement of their losses.

Other films by Farook are Kaliachan and Poriveyil.

Ozhiyathe is playing in theatres