The first movie in the Beary (also known as Byari) dialect of costal Karnataka, titled Byari, has been named the best film at the 59th National Award announced on Wednesday. The award has been shared with Marathi film Deool.Beary is a Muslim community involved in business activities from as early as 12th century with its own culture, language and literature. Bearys, who speak Beary, are found in the coastal and Malnad districts and form one of the largest demographic groups in Mangalore.
Beary does not have a script of its own, but is spoken by a significant number of people, mostly Muslims living in the coastal belt of Mangalore and Ullal segments and in Kasargod.
Beary is a mix of Malayalam, Tulu and Urdu. Byari is the first film made in Beary , and deals with the exploitation of women and young girls.
The film has been directed by Suveeran and produced by Altaf Hussain, a Mangalore-based hotelier. The film was released in Mangalore’s Prabhat theatre a few days ago.
Suveeran is happy that his maiden directorial venture has received the National Award.
“We shot the entire film with a 16-mm camera and took local artists, who had some background in theatre. To get a realistic look for the film, I tried to project the film as naturally as possible. Weshot at places where there is heavy concentration of Bearys,” said Suveeran.
Bearys launched their own Sahitya Academy, which was later recognised by Karnataka as Beary Sahitya Academy. “This award is the national recognition we got in return to our long struggle to establish ourselves as people of letters, music, culture and theatre and now film, too. This is the first film made in Beary; it depicts the socio-religious convictions of a society that has been dogged by religious dogmas,” said MB Abdul Rahman, founder president of Central Beary Parishat.
TK Rahim, a writer who belongs to the Beary-speaking community, said: “I did not have any expectations from the film. Before I took my family to the film I had told them not to expect great things, but after watching the film for 10 minutes, I apologised to my family and told them that the film had a very valid theme and had a statement to make.”
TK Ummar, a Bangalore-based businessman, is disappointed as he missed the opportunity to see the film when it was released. “I lost the opportunity to see the film that has won an award. I will see the film the moment I come to Bangalore,” he said from Belgaum.
Beary Sahitya Academy president Rahim Uchchil expressed pain that of the 25-lakh Beary speaking people, only 3,000 have seen the film. “In some places, clerics had asked people not to see the film because it depicted several socio-religious dogmas in the community. I played a negative role in the film. In my role, I had to give ‘talaq’ to a woman standing on the road; after enacting the scene I cried within myself and told the producer Althaf and director Suveeran that ‘talaq’ is an uncivilised practice.”
Althaf said he was happy because the award panel, comprising those who did not know the language, found the film was motivating and had a socially relevant message.
