Holding up a mirror to reality
M. L. NARASIMHAM
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Revisiting tribal hamlet for capturing a social reality.
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ACTING THE PART Shafi and Nandita Das in a scene from the film.
How do you create compelling aesthetic values on a limited budget? Ask K.N.T. Sastry and you have a ready-made answer in the form of his internationally acclaimed work, Tiladaanam. He is back to making his second feature film, Kamli produced by B.C. Haricharan Prasad and P.V. Sukanya under the Apoorva Chitra banner. Nandita Das and Shafi play the lead roles in a film that showcases the stark realities on the plight of girl child.
As real as it gets
K.N.T. prefers to shoot in unadorned locations to lend that authentic feel to his product. So we travelled down the road to Ibrahimpatnam, on the outskirts of the city and took a turn to reach Patel Cheruvu Tanda after a further 18 km drive. It is amazing to see abysmal conditions of those living in the shadow of the so-called High-Tech city of Hyderabad. Mixing fact and fiction KNT is presenting Kamli. The shoot on that day was Kamli's (played by Nandita Das) wedding scene. The forgotten traditions came alive, even as the tribal women, real tribal women, mind you, and not the junior actors in the guise of tribal women - gathered and sang songs and danced as is the practice of the Lambada tribe. And the entire village was decked up for the feast.
Nandita Das as the bride was given a ceremonial bath in the village tank amidst the singing of the Lambada women who presented her new clothes. We came to know that only during her marriage does a Lambada girl get her traditional mirrored attire and those white bangles. Shafi went on to go round the poles to announce that they are married. Dressed in tribal attire, Thanikella Bharani enlivened the atmosphere. He received the hookah from the bridegroom, and the bet here is that the bridegroom should prove his strength from drawing the maximum smoke from the hookah. Bharani untied the muvvalu from the feet of Nandita Das (Kamli) signifying the transition from childhood to adult. These poignant moments were captured by ace lens man Sunny Joseph.
Sastry feels that by presenting a film, which is an admixture of fact and fiction, he is touching a very sensitive social problem - the issue of girl child. Why do these Lambada women be forced to part with only girl children? Again why only girl babies are being swapped in Hyderabad hospitals? These are real life questions that he is addressing in the film. "Optimistically, we have provided a solution as well." Nandita Das chose to do this film, her first in Telugu, for a variety of reasons, according to the director. "Primarily, the script attracted her, more than that, the issue of girl child was foremost in her mind when she accepted the offer."
In the Tanda, the tribal hamlet, it was Shafi, a brilliant actor from the National School of Drama, who stole the show and was seen enjoying every bit. His spontaneity, as the director vouches, in some sequences - like the brawls with his wife, or with Bharani was "so natural, that they remind us of the slum dwellers fighting across our streets."
The picturisation became difficult, says K.N.T. as some scenes were shot in slums of Champapet and Jillelaguda in Hyderabad and the unit had to face drunken brawls since he preferred to shoot in real locations with ordinary folks to give it authenticity.
Be it in a Tanda or other location, there were delays and snags that they could successfully overcome.
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