Child magician takes main role in short film

In the short film, 'How to use a gun', boy magician proves he knows how to act.

Little hero: Young magician, Ashwin Raj and Sajeev Pazhoor (left) being surrounded by media people outside Kalabhavan theatre.

Child magician Ashwin Raj has proved his brilliance as an actor. Keeping aside his magician’s coat, 13-year-old Ashwin acted as the chief character of ‘How to use a gun’ a short film directed by media personality, Sajeev Pzhoor. When the film was premiered at the Kalabhavan Theatre here, present were a good number of venerable personalities including poet and Magic Academy’s patron, O.N.V. Kurup; writers, Dr. George Onakoor and Perumbadavam Sreedharan among several other luminaries from the world of cinema.

For Ashwin, to express in front of a movie camera is not a new experience. He has already appeared in a number of television serials. As on the magic stage, for the short film too, his younger brother Axel Raj was there. In the film, Ashwin was the only son of parents living in a flat and Axel, a boy next door.

Mr. Pazhoor has deftly weaved the story of the evolution of a young dissenter in life to whom life is just loneliness in the limited spaces of a skyscraper. The loneliness and restrictions could only lead the child to his own world of computer games and guns. Fascinated by the predominant violence and bloodshed in the computer games, the boy tries his perfection in using a gun, first breaking his father’s liquor glasses, then paining the neighbourhood boy and finally killing the pussycat that was till a few days before, closer to his heart. The cinema freezes into the end still with blood drops of the cat dripping from the table followed by the boy smiling at his success in using the gun.

The film wins in telling a contemporary story and little magician Ashwin wins a name in a different sphere – the cinema. The film was produced by Ashwin's father, Rajan Mathew Elanjimattom on behalf of Elanjimattom Magical Entertainers.