The facility’s inauguration also coincides with the 90th anniversary of Malayalam cinema and the 20th year of establishment of the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy.

Thiruvananthapuram :

A 10,000-film digital archive, well-equipped research library and mini-theatres are among the facilities at the Centre for International Film Research and Archives (CIFRA) which will see a formal inauguration at the KINFRA Film and Video Park, Kazhakootam, on Wednesday.The facility – designed as a memorial to yesteryear actor Sathyan – brings a wealth of research material on Malayalam cinema under a single roof. The centre also includes a conference hall, dormitory, office and guest rooms.

The facility’s inauguration also coincides with the 90th anniversary of Malayalam cinema and the 20th year of establishment of the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy. Though Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate CIFRA at 6 pm on Wednesday, it will be opened to the public only by January 1, after this year’s International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK), Academy officials said. By then, the Academy office also will be shifted to CIFRA from its present location at Sasthamangalam. The CIFRA library is named after PK Nair, who established the National Film Archive of India in Pune.

“The library will have 10,000 Indian and foreign films. As of now, we have collected 3,000 Malayalam films and more than 3, 000 foreign language films,”  Chalachitra Academy secretary Mahesh Panju said.

“The mini theatre in CIFRA will help the research scholars as well as film enthusiasts to watch the movie in a nominal amount,” he said.

“We have numerous students in the state who are doing film studies and film research along with students doing film studies as an interdisciplinary course. They do not have enough materials for the same.

CIFRA, with more than 10, 000 films and 8, 000 books, will help the students in finding the research materials,” said N P Sajeesh, deputy director of programmes, State Chalachitra Academy.

At the entrance to CIFRA, the guests are welcomed by the logo of Chalachitra Academy. “Automobile scraps were used to make the academy logo and two other sculptures. The picture of K C Daniel, father of Malayalam cinema, in the reception has been made with the electronic scraps,” said Santhosh Raman, the interior designer of CIFRA, who won the National Award and State Award for Best Production Designer for the 2017 film ‘Take Off.’

“We wanted every wall to be informative and it is made in such a way to take the guest through the journey of Malayalam Cinema,” he said.On the budget of the project, Mahesh Panju said, “Kerala State Chalachitra Academy already had R2 crore in hand and the rest of the money was funded by the state government. The estimated budget of the project is R4.25 crore.”

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express  Home> Cities> Thiruvananthapuram / by Express News Service / November 19th, 2018