Back
Kerala
A day in the life of a door-to-door salesman
award-winner: A still from the film Door to Door.
Door to Door, which won the best short film award at the Swaralaya Short Film Festival at Palakkad recently, offers an interesting slice of rustic life.
The 23-minute film, directed by Naranipuzha Shanavas, is about a day in the life of a door-to-door salesman and a bitter experience he has in particular.
The salesman trying hard to sell a vapourizer in a village zeroes in on the house of a retired soldier who is struggling to clean his water tank when the former makes his entry.
The salesman lends him a helping hand in the hope of selling his product; he, in fact, ends up doing the bulk of the work, even as explaining the virtues of the product he is marketing.
The rest of the film is about how salesman not just fails to sell his product but loses Rs.100 from his pocket (to restore power in the house).
Incident-based“The film was completely based on an experience I had while I worked as a salesman in Thrissur district some time ago,” says Shanavas.
“I still remember spending a whole day in search of a lineman; the power in the house had gone off when I tried to have a demonstration of the vapourizer and I had no option but to pay from my pocket for the restoration of power.”
Achuthanandan plays the hapless salesman while Ashok Kumar is the retired soldier; and both have done well.
The film is rather well shot too, though the screenplay is a bit clichéd and has a few predictable scenes.
P.K. Ajith Kumar
© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu