Scream of Silence: A Page from History

THE LIGHT OF ANDAMANS | ISSUE 28 | 2 MAR 2012

Scream of Silence:

A Page from History

By Sajan Gopalan

It was raining torrentially and the paint was getting diluted with rain drops. But for the artist it was not even a distraction. For him the torment within was too intense and the scream of silence too haunting.

A documentary production on the Cellular Jail is in progress. They were portraying the saga of the agonies of the Cellular Jail and the story was being narrated through the eyes of an artist.

If you have to tell the story of Cellular Jail, who else is there other than Sreeprakash whose life is intertwined with the life of these Islands for the last two decades?

This short video titled 'Scream of Silence' is an attempt to recreate the history and human agony behind the saga of the Cellular Jail in Port Blair. It traces the beginning of the penal settlement and continues with the story of inflow of convicts from all parts of Indian subcontinent as it evolves with the great struggle of independence which was spreading like wild fire in all parts of the country.

As the artist moves through the corridors of the jail what he can hear is the silence filled with suppressed cries. But each sight and sound motivates him to capture its mood in to an eternal piece of art through the medium of Acrylic, Oil, Watercolor or pencil.

S.N.Sreeprakash is a self taught artist who is awarded with Honorable LG's commendation certificate in the Republic Day 2010 and he is presently a member of SZCC, for visual art. It was his soul searching wanderings that brought him to these emerald islands long back from his home state of Kerala. But what awaited him in these islands was a mystery wrapped in myriad landscapes and unwritten history trapped in even ordinary buildings. He learned from each such experience and translated that in to an image which will keep those memories alive for the coming generations.

For this documentary Prakash has done more than fifty two drawings and paintings. Paintings on the ruthless execution of freedom fighters, hard life of prisoners, evening bash of Britishers in the Ross Island, the eerie silence of Viper Island. He has been working on those pictures continuously for two months. He had forgotten to eat and even sleep evaded him. It was a torment of the past overtaking the present and transcreating it in to beautiful narrative through images.

V R Ajith Kumar

The script for the documentary is written with commentary notes by V.R. Ajith Kumar, a well known novelist and a script writer who is presently Deputy Director, PRD, Kerala and the documentary is the result of his visit to these Islands to recall those good old days with his childhood friend Prakash.The script for narration and voice is given by Dominic and the documentary is directed by P. D. Santosh. "Maunathinte Nilavili"(Scream of Silence) is in Malayalam and subtitled in English and was screened in the presence of an august gathering inaugurated by the Deputy Speaker of Kerala on 25th January 2012 in Thiruvananthapuram, along with an exhibition of paintings done for the documentary, by S.N.Sreeprakash.