Amma Ariyan
(Malayalam: അമ്മ അറിയാന്,
translation: For the Information of Mother)
is a 1986 Malayalam film directed by avant-garde
filmmaker John Abraham.
The story revolves around the incidents
following the death of a young Naxalite,
upon whose death his friends travel to the
village where his mother lives to inform
her of the death of her only son.
The film is made in a documentary style.
As a part of the technique of intertwining
fact and fiction, the film maker shot many
actual leftist political strikes that took place
in Kerala during that time.
Amma Ariyan is considered to be a complex movie.
Since its release in 1986, critics have read
several layers of meaning in its story.
The incidents that led to the production
of Amma Ariyan are striking.
A group of young friends of John Abraham
who wanted to make it into a “people's movie”,
constituted the Odessa Collective, aiming
at production and exhibition of good cinema
with active participation of the general public,
without the intervention of market forces.
They raised money for the film by traveling
from village to village and house to house,
beating drums, singing and putting up
skits and short plays at street corners and asking for
contributions for the 'people's cinema'.
They collected the fund needed for the
production of a movie.
It was Odessa's first film and John's last
Amma Ariyan re-wrote all the conventions of filmmaking.
(Malayalam: അമ്മ അറിയാന്,
translation: For the Information of Mother)
is a 1986 Malayalam film directed by avant-garde
filmmaker John Abraham.
The story revolves around the incidents
following the death of a young Naxalite,
upon whose death his friends travel to the
village where his mother lives to inform
her of the death of her only son.
The film is made in a documentary style.
As a part of the technique of intertwining
fact and fiction, the film maker shot many
actual leftist political strikes that took place
in Kerala during that time.
Amma Ariyan is considered to be a complex movie.
Since its release in 1986, critics have read
several layers of meaning in its story.
The incidents that led to the production
of Amma Ariyan are striking.
A group of young friends of John Abraham
who wanted to make it into a “people's movie”,
constituted the Odessa Collective, aiming
at production and exhibition of good cinema
with active participation of the general public,
without the intervention of market forces.
They raised money for the film by traveling
from village to village and house to house,
beating drums, singing and putting up
skits and short plays at street corners and asking for
contributions for the 'people's cinema'.
They collected the fund needed for the
production of a movie.
It was Odessa's first film and John's last
Amma Ariyan re-wrote all the conventions of filmmaking.
