''Dreaming of Words'' is a 2021 Indian documentary film directed and produced by Nandan. ''Dreaming of Words'' has received numerous accolades including

National Film Award for Best Educational/Motivational/Instructional Film The National Film Award for Best Educational/Motivational/Instructional Film is one of the National Film Awards presented annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India. ...

(2020) awarded to Nandan as both director and producer at the

68th National Film Awards The 68th National Film Awards ceremony was an event during which the Directorate of Film Festivals presented its annual National Film Awards to honour the best films of 2020 in Indian cinema. The awards ceremony was originally slated to be held ...

. The documentary traces the life and work of

Njattyela Sreedharan Njattyela Sreedharan ( ml, ഞാറ്റ്യേല ശ്രീധരൻ; born in 1938) is a lexicographer from Thalassery in Kerala. He is known for compiling a dictionary connecting four major Dravidian languages Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil a ...

, a fourth standard drop-out, who compiles a dictionary connecting four major

Dravidian languages The Dravidian languages (or sometimes Dravidic) are a family of languages spoken by 250 million people, mainly in southern India, north-east Sri Lanka, and south-west Pakistan. Since the colonial era, there have been small but significant ...

Synopsis

Njattyela Sreedharan, a fourth standard drop-out, compiles a dictionary connecting four major

. Travelling across four states and doing extensive research, he spent twenty five years making the multilingual dictionary. This unique dictionary offers a comparative study of

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

and

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

. ''Dreaming of Words'' traces Sreedharan's life, work, love for languages and the struggles to get the dictionary published. The film also explores the linguistic and cultural diversity in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

People featured

The documentary follows Njattyela Sreedharan's unparalleled determination to compile his 'Dictionary of Four Dravidian Languages'. The film also features P. K. Pokker, former director of

Kerala Bhasha Institute The Kerala Bhasha Institute is an academic publishing house in India that was established on 11 March 1968 as a part of the fourth five-year plan. Twelve years later, on 1 November 1980, a regional center was set up in Kozhikode. It is located ...

, who decided to publish Sreedharan's Tamil - Malayalam dictionary in 2012 and K. P. Mohanan, the secretary of

Kerala Sahitya Akademi The Kerala Sahitya Akademi or Academy for Malayalam literature is an autonomous body established to promote the Malayalam language and Malayalam literature, literature. It is situated in City of Thrissur, Kerala in India. History The academy ...

. Also featured in the documentary are Seetharam Master, N. P. Usha and K. K. Ramesh.

Release

''Dreaming of Words'' had its world premiere at the

International Mother Language Day International Mother Language Day is a worldwide annual observance held on 21 February to promote awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity and to promote multilingualism. First announced by UNESCO on 17 November 1999, it was formally r ...

Celebrations 2021 organised by the

Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), New Delhi is a premier government-funded arts organization in India. It is an autonomous institute under the Union Ministry of Culture (India), Ministry of Culture. History The Indira Ga ...

and the

Ministry of Education (India) The Ministry of Education ( MoE; formerly the Ministry of Human Resource Development from 1985 to 2020) is a ministry of the Government of India, responsible for the implementation of the National Policy on Education. The Ministry is further di ...

in partnership with

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

. This was followed by an international premiere as part of Kultura Con at the Brazilian Cultural Center in

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

. ''Dreaming of Words'' had its American premiere at the Micheaux Film Festival on 26 April 2021. The documentary was screened at the annual convention of the

Modern Language Association The Modern Language Association of America, often referred to as the Modern Language Association (MLA), is widely considered the principal professional association in the United States for scholars of language and literature. The MLA aims to "st ...

and the annual conference of the

Linguistic Society of America The Linguistic Society of America (LSA) is a learned society for the field of linguistics. Founded in New York City in 1924, the LSA works to promote the scientific study of language. The society publishes three scholarly journals: ''Language'', ...

in January 2022.

Official selections and screenings

Film festivals

* Central Florida Film Festival - 2022 * Black Bear Film Festival - USA – 2021 * Kultura Con –

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

– 2 March 2021 * RapidLion: The South African International Film Festival – South Africa – 9 April 2021 * Micheaux Film festival – USA – 26 April 2021 (American premiere) * 61st

Kraków Film Festival The Kraków Film Festival ( pl, Krakowski Festiwal Filmowy) is one of Europe's oldest events dedicated to documentary, animation and other short film forms. It has been organised every year since 1961. The Artistic President of the festival is ...

Video Library – Poland - 30 May 2021 * Chicago South Asian Film Festival - 2021 * Washington DC South Asian Film Festival – USA - 2021 * Agora Doc Market

Thessaloniki Documentary Festival The Thessaloniki Documentary Festival (TDF) is an international documentary festival held every March in Thessaloniki, Greece. TDF, founded in 1999, features competition sections and ranks among the world's leading documentary festivals. Since 20 ...

– Greece - 24 June 2021 * Festival International du Film de Bretagne – France (European premiere) – 8 July 2021 * Festival Nits de cinema oriental de Vic (Asian Summer Film Festival) – Spain – 20 July 2021 * Florida South Asian Film Festival – 2021 *

Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival The Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival () is a state-endorsed documentary film festival held in the city of Guangzhou, China. It is one of the biggest documentary film festivals in China. See also * List of film festivals in China ...

– China - 2022 * Atlanta Urban Mediamakers Festival – 2021 *

Fiorenzo Serra Fiorenzo Serra (3 May 1921, in Porto Torres – 28 September 2005, in Sassari) was an Italian film director and documentarist. He produced 66 movies and documentaries, mainly based on Sardinia's ethnographic, social and cultural themes. He win ...

Film festival – Italy – 2021 * Vizantrop Engaged Ethnographic Film Festival –

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

– 2021 * 17th Festival Transterritorial de Cine Underground – Argentina – 2021 * Jaffna International Cinema Festival – Sri Lanka – 2021 * Madurai International Documentary and Short Film Festival – India – 2021 *

SiGNS Film Festival SiGNS Film Festival is one of the short film and documentary film festivals in India. The tenth edition was conducted in October 2018 in association with the Kochi-Muziris Biennale Festival organization FFSI-Keralam is one of the five chapters o ...

- Kerala - 3 April 2022

Academic conferences

* Annual Convention of the

– 7 January 2022 * Annual Conference of the

Linguistics Society of America The Linguistic Society of America (LSA) is a learned society for the field of linguistics. Founded in New York City in 1924, the LSA works to promote the scientific study of language. The society publishes three scholarly journals: ''Language'', ...

– 9 January 2022 * 28th annual Midwestern Conference on Literature, Language and Media (MCLLM) at

Northern Illinois University Northern Illinois University (NIU) is a public research university in DeKalb, Illinois. It was founded as Northern Illinois State Normal School on May 22, 1895, by Illinois Governor John P. Altgeld as part of an expansion of the state's system ...

DeKalb, Illinois DeKalb ( ) is a city in DeKalb County, Illinois, United States. The population was 43,862 according to the 2010 census, up from 39,018 at the 2000 census. The city is named after decorated Franconian- French war hero Johann de Kalb, who died ...

– USA - 2 April 2021 * 14th International Conference of the Asian Association for Lexicography (ASIALEX 2021) –

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

– June 2021 * 12th International Indology Graduate Research Symposium (IIGRS 12) organised by the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...

in collaboration with the Austrian Academy of Sciences - Austria – July 2021 * Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Society's conference (IACSS 2021) organised by the Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Society in collaboration with the Cultural Research Centre at

National University of Singapore The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national public research university in Singapore. Founded in 1905 as the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School, NUS is the oldest autonomous university in the c ...

- July 2021 * World Congress of Applied Linguistics 2021 organised by the

International Association of Applied Linguistics The International Association of Applied Linguistics (french: Association Internationale de Linguistique Appliquée), or AILA, was formed in 1964 as an association of various national organizations for applied linguistics. AILA has more than 8,000 m ...

University of Groningen The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; nl, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, abbreviated as RUG) is a Public university#Continental Europe, public research university of more than 30,000 students in the city of Groningen (city), Groningen in ...

, Netherlands. * Annual colloquium of La Société d’Histoire et d’Epistémologie des Sciences du Langage (SHESL) 2022 at

Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales ( en, National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations), abbreviated as INALCO, is a French university specializing in the teaching of languages and cultures from the world. ...

, Paris - 26 January 2022 * XI Ethnology days and the VIII Finnish Conference on Cultural Policy Research at the

University of Jyväskylä The University of Jyväskylä ( fi, Jyväskylän yliopisto) is a research university in Jyväskylä, Finland. It has its origins in the first Finnish-speaking Teacher Training College (the so-called Teacher Seminary), founded in 1863. Ar ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

- March 2022 * 3rd Asian Conference on Language (ACL2022) organised by

The International Academic Forum The International Academic Forum (IAFOR) is an NGO research organization based in Japan. In 2017, IAFOR established a research centre at the Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP), a graduate school of Osaka University, Japan. IAF ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

- 26 March 2022

Other events

Celebrations organised by The Centre for Linguistics, SLL&CS,

Jawaharlal Nehru University Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is a public major research university located in New Delhi, India. It was established in 1969 and named after Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister. The university is known for leading faculties and r ...

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...

- 21 February 2022

Awards

(2020) * Kerala State Television Award (2020) for Best Educational Programme * Festival Prize for Best International Documentary Film at Festival International du Film de Bretagne (2021) * Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Washington DC South Asian Film Festival (2021) * Festival Prize for Best Poster at the Buenos Aires International Film Festival (2021)

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, id=tt13150132
Dreaming of Words , Official Trailer
Indian documentary films 2021 documentary films 2021 films Documentary films about words and language Documentary films about India Documentary films about education Films about lexicography Films about language Films shot in Thiruvananthapuram Films shot in Thrissur Films shot in Kozhikode Films shot in Kannur Films shot in Thalassery 2021 independent films Biographical documentary films Works about multilingualism