Saratchandran
The director of acclaimed documentaries on the Anti-Coca Cola struggle at Plachimada, India, was killed in a railway accident at Nellayi in Thrissur, Kerala.
Filmmaker C. Sarathchandran (53) is especially known for his works ‘Kaippunneeru’ (The Bitter Drink) in 2003 and ‘The Thousand Days and a Dream’ (2006). The films show how a struggle of a few thousand tribal villagers in central Kerala grew into a people’s movement against the most powerful corporate giant in the world, the Coca Cola company.
The American soft-drink company had a bottling plant in Plachimada until 2004, when it was closed down after a successful campaign by activists, who claimed that it was responsible for a drastic decline in the quantity and quality of water available to local farmers and villagers.
The Kerala state government is currently considering an expert committee recommendation to claim Rs 216.26 crore (US$ 48.6 million) in damages from Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Ltd.
Sarathchandran was traveling in the Guruvayur-Egmore Chennai Express when he fell onto the track while trying to help a man who slipped from the moving train, police said.
With his documentaries, the filmmaker aimed to raise public awareness on environment issues and people’s struggles in his native Indian state of Kerala.
At the time of his death he was working on documentaries on industrial pollution due to a gelatin factory near Trichur, and a film on the current state of Chaliyar river.
Read the obituary by his friend and director of the School of Media Studies, C S Venkiteswaran.
Source: Deccan Herald, 01 Apr 2010 ; Movies Updated blog, 11 Apr 2010
