Award is for the subject of 'Daivanamathil': Jayaraaj

Kochi, Aug 9 (UNI) Winner of the 2005 'Nargis Dutt Award for the Best Film on National Integration', Malayalam film director Jayaraaj says the award is for the subject of 'Daivanamathil', which deals with how Islamic fundamentalism is creeping into the country.

Talking to UNI, the noted director said that the subject of the film was ''extremely relevant to the times'', not only in India but also abroad. For this reason, 'Daivanamathil' (In The Name of God) had been adjudged the best film in the competition section at the Madrid Film Festival in Spain last year, he told UNI on phone.

Stating that he was apprehensive of taking up 'Daivanamathil' when writer-producer Aryadan Shoukath suggested the idea, Jayaraaj said ''as a Hindu, I was not sure how people would react to a film being made by me on the subject of Islamic fundamentalism.'' However, on Shoukath's insistence, he went ahead with the project and ''once I started the film, the subject was so compelling that I forgot all my fears and apprehensions.'' Stating that he was proud to be associated with a film like 'Daivanamathil', Jayaraaj said its focus was on how minority community youth were being brainwashed by fanatic groups to join the so-called 'jehad' by citing incidents of ''majority extremism'' such as the Ayodhya demolition and the post-Godhra riots in Gujarat.

''India has seen a lot of majority communalism in the past 25 years and the reaction to it from the minorities, though the way this reaction happens is not right,'' he added.

Jayaraaj, whose earlier films like 'Kaliyattam', 'Shantham' and 'Karunam' have won top national awards, said though set in Kerala, the film could be based anywhere in the world.

With talented actors Prithviraj and Bhavana in the lead roles, 'Daivanamathil' tells the story of young Anwar, who goes to north India for higher studies but gets involved with a religious fanatic and turns from a romantic youth to a killer.

Says Jayaraaj about his ''low-budget'' film, ''just as it has become a wrong trend to blame Muslims for every act of violence, similarly, sections among minority communities also are reacting mindlessly to majority communalism. All religions advocate peace and to preach violence and killing in the name of God will lead us only to devastation.'' UNI