Producing a patriotic film with students
and staff to celebrate the school day is for sure a concept unheard of. It is
not just expensive, but also time consuming, as the teachers and students need
to strike a balance between the academics and the film shoot. Subha Niketan, a
CBSE school from Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh, has proved that the tedious task
can be completed successfully by exercising proper planning and execution and
of course with due support from students, parents, teachers and staff. The
school has produced a patriotic film ‘Svatanya’ of duration of 75 minutes and
dubbed it into different languages. The entire school participated in the film
production by sharing the collective responsibility in one way or the other.
The teaching faculty sat on hours together to finalise the script, while the
music teacher composed the tunes and provided the background score. The
academic coordinator and the principal designed the sets and the karate teacher
wielded the camera. Needless to say the choreography has been handled by the
dance teacher. Of the 700 students pursuing from the kindergarten to the class
X in the nearly three-decade-old school, over 300 children donned different
roles, as the others participated in the production related jobs.
It was like a 12-day long picnic for the
entire crew that involved in the shoot in locations ranging from the sprawling
campus of the school, nearby gardens, historic Bhavanarayana Swamy temple at
Sarpavaram, located a few yards away from the school, beautiful beach at
Vakalapudi village on the city’s outskirts. The story was woven around several
real life incidents that changed the fate of the nation about two centuries
ago. From the entry of the British into the sub-continent to expand their
business to the change of power from the British to the Indian leaders, all the
important events were captured in an adept manner.
“Svatanya means independence in Sanskrit.
Since the script is dealing with one of the most acclaimed freedom struggles
all over the world, we have given this title. Our faculty and students have
given their best to the project and we cannot forget the support extended by
the children’s parents,” says V. Subhashini, Correspondent of the Subha
Niketan. The project is not at all surprised the parents, as they are well
aware that the activity-based CBSE
School undertakes
programmes beyond the slate. Be it observing two-minutes of silence in the
morning and evening everyday or declaring every fourth Saturday as ‘no-book day,’
the school gets a special place in the hearts of its students. “Svatanya is one
such initiative, where we tried to teach the entire history of Indian
independence movement to all our students in a short and sweet manner,” says
Janardhan Chowdary, director of the school.
“By the time we finished the shoot and
screened the film for our students, all of them knew about the great movement
and learned about the contributions of unsung heroes such as Sidhu, Birsa
Munda, Bhaga Jatin, Udham Singh and Velu Thampi, who sacrificed their lives
during the freedom struggle,” he adds.
With the school uploading the film to the
Youtube, it got rave reviews from the viewers. Following requisitions from the
parents and the patriots, special screenings were done on gigantic screens many
a times. “This school day is very special in the history of Subha Niketan.
Though we are away from the film song performances from the beginning and
trying something different every year, we can proudly say ‘Svatanya’ is a
beautiful feather in the cap of Subha Niketan,” points out Ms. Subhashini.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_UQjhAYxCa9D60AYxAA9Lw
