India social worker in UAE goes from real to reel

Ashraf Thamarassheri, a social worker based in United Arab Emirates's Ajman, has been assisting expatriate families with documentation work for repatriating dead bodies of their loved ones and was reportedly chosen as the best social worker by the Malayalam TV channel Media One, Emirates24|7 reported Saturday.

TA Razak, an acclaimed screenplay writer in the south Indian state of Kerala who has now turned to film direction, is in talks with city-based social workers, film personalities and technicians in Dubai.

This will help him with the new venture which will be shot mostly in UAE.

Razak, who started as a clerk at the Kerala Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC), hoped that the Indian audiences would appreciate the touching stories from the Gulf - and especially the movie based on a selfless community worker like Thamarassheri.

"It is a good gesture to send the right message to the community. It is an incentive to other social workers, too, in the Gulf. My work will continue irrespective of whether books or cinema are made about it," the news report cited Thamarassheri as saying.