By Verghese V Joseph –
‘Beautiful Child’, a short digital short film on the Christmas story, was released on YouTube on December 20. The moving film aesthetically captures the happenings at Bethlehem at the birth of Jesus. Watch the movie below. It’ll be a good thing to like, comment and subscribe to their channel!
Backed by the voice of Fr Joel Pinto, the film opens to a simple yet pleasant story of Christmas. Directed by Charles Chettiar and produced by Gerard Coutinho under the banner of Theatre Ministry of Our Lady of Mercy Church (OLMC), Pokharan, Thane, (Archdiocese of Bombay), the cast features an ensemble of dynamic actors, dancers, musicians and technicians. The lockdown has motivated them to produce their very first digital short film. No animals were harmed during the making of this film.
With excellent background score by Alstan Remedios, wonderful editing by Tushar Mathkar and the script handled well by Rochelle Gomes, the movie is bound to touch many people during this season. The actors were in their elements and played their part to perfection. The scenes were breath taking and the narration top notch. The art director too has done a commendable job.
Through this initiative, the group aims to take Christ to all corners of the world through art, after all Jesus Himself wants the talented lot, to multiply their gold coins, use their talents – that’s what the Ministry intends to do.
When they approached the film idea to the producer in August 2020, they were highly skeptical about its completion because of lockdown. They were challenged at many levels — the crew to a location three hours away from their homes, finances, accommodation, transportation, and a lot more. However, with the positive support of the Church, and the elders of the team, the Ministry decided to forge ahead and not look back, especially when this movie wishes to convey a message to everyone.
Most of their members have day jobs but they made time to showcase their scriptural acting skills. You can also catch their previous work on the channel, including short skits Odditions, Master Coming and Bachelor Boy.
OLMC Theatre Ministry traces its origins to the parish of Our Lady of Mercy Church, Thane in the Archdiocese of Bombay. Recently formed in the year 2015, the group comprises of a dynamic set of 40-odd individuals coming from a varied ages of 10 to 50 years. Their goal? To spread the Word of God through art – theatre, dance, and music. The group has performed a number of plays in the parish and at theatres, the most memorable ones being ‘Beggar’ and ‘Barabbas’, all steeped in gospel values.
The Theatre Ministry hopes that this initiative would go on to touch many lives, as they continue to look forward to producing many such movies in the future.
Their very first music video was a collaboration with the Examiner Catholic Newsweekly of the Archdiocese of Bombay, and it threw light on some of the silent heroes of the Catholic community working tirelessly during the COVID-19 pandemic. They have also performed short segments for the ‘Terrific Tuesdays’ Children’s Catechesis on the Archdiocese of Bombay YouTube channel.
“We hope that the wonderful and joy-filled message of ‘Beautiful Child’ will carry the love of the babe of Bethlehem to the four corners of the world,” a statement from makers of the film said.