| Painting Life | |
| Director: | Dr. Biju |
| Producer: | Ushadevi BS |
| Studio: | Silicon Media & BlueOcean Pictures |
| Starring: | Prakash Bare Geetanjali Thapa Ritabhari Chakraborty Shankar Ramakrishnan Purav Goswami Ravi Singh Krishnan Balakrishnan Noksha Saham Phuntsok Ladakhi Meera Vasudevan Melwyn William |
| Music: | Mark Chan |
| Cinematography: | M. J. Radhakrishnan |
| Editing: | Davis Manuel |
| Runtime: | 140 minutes |
| Country: | India, US |
| Language: | English |
Painting Life is a 2018 Indian English film written and directed by Bijukumar Damodaran (commonly known as Dr. Biju). The film was jointly produced by Silicon Media and Blue Ocean Pictures and depicts the experience of a film crew who are stranded in a remote Himalayan village.[1] [2]
The crew, led by a Bollywood filmmaker, arrives in the Himalayas to shoot a song and dance sequence for their upcoming blockbuster. However, after torrential downpours and landslides, they find themselves cut off from the outside world with no basic amenities or means of communication, at the mercy of nature.
This scenario describes a common theme in many reality TV shows, particularly those centered around survival, adventure, or cultural exploration. The contrast between the fast-paced, urban lifestyle and the slower, more challenging conditions in a rural or remote setting creates dramatic tension and often serves as a backdrop for personal growth and development among the participants. This theme has been explored in various reality TV formats, each with its unique twist and focus on different aspects of the human experience.
For the director, who has been highly successful commercially, cinema is mainly an entertainment business with no connect to the real world or social issues. He saw the valley as merely a picturesque locale for his shoot. Through a series of intense, he begins to see the world in a different light. His eyes open to the travails of the breathtakingly beautiful land and its beleaguered residents. How these revelations affect the thoughts and priorities of the filmmaker, both on the personal and filmmaking fronts, forms the central theme of the film.
Painting Life is the first English feature film directed by Dr. Biju, whose earlier eight films have won national film awards. M. J. Radhakrishnan, a 7-time winner of Kerala State Film Awards for Best Cinematography, is behind the camera.
Singaporean composer Mark Chan composed the background score of the film. The sound design, recording and mixing are performed by Jayadevan Chakkadath and Pramod Thomas. The film is co-produced by Silicon Media.
Painting Life[4] is a pan-Indian project with a cast and crew from 10 different Indian states. The cast of the film includes Prakash Bare (Bangalore), Geetanjali Thapa (Mumbai), Ritabhari Chakraborty (Kolkata), Shankar Ramakrishnan (Kerala), Ravi Singh (Mumbai), Purav Goswami (Assam), Meera Vasudevan(Mumbai), Phuntsok Ladakhi (Jammu), Noksha Saham (Arunachal), Kinzong Bhutia (Sikkim), Master Govardhan(Kerala), Tensing Lepcha (Sikkim), Melwyn Williams (Delhi), Krishnan Balakrishnan (Kerala), Yancho Bhutia (Sikkim) and Arjun (Sikkim).
The film is shot[5] [6] entirely in Sikkim, an Indian state that borders China. The movie also talks about the dam construction which has impacted the ecology of this area. A number of NGOs and activists from the state, who continue to work against projects that threaten the ecosystem of Sikkim, were associated with the movie both on and behind the camera.