Balancing the yin and the yang
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Filmmaker Sunil Sukthankar says he internalises a message and conveys it through his socially relevant feature films. Bhawani Cheerath
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Photo: S. Mahinsha
Mapping societal issues: Sunil Sukthankar’s socially relevant films throw light on various issues.
Filmmakers Sumitra Bhave and Sunil Sukthankar can be termed as regulars at the Trivandrum International Film Festival (TIFF) conducted by Chalachitra Film Society. Marathi films ‘Nital’ (Crystal Clear) and ‘Baadha’ (Possession), which were screened at TIFF ’07, straddled two different worlds, that of the ‘respectable educated urban’ and that of ‘shamans, stigma and superstition.’
The ‘all’s-well-that-ends-well’ conclusion to both the films strikes one and naturally therefore the first question is, “Could the film (s) not have stopped short of an ‘in the face’ ending?”
Positive ending
“Why not a comparatively positive ending? Doesn’t life as we live it have such positivity?” asks Sukthankar. If ‘Nital’ had been left open-ended, it probably would fit into the mould of the unconventional, but “we were very clear in our minds that the film also must carry a message to erase misconceptions about the vitiligo-affected.”
‘Nital’ begins with Ananya ( Sekhar Kulkarni) taking his colleague Neeraja (Devika Daftardar), a successful Ophthalmologist, to his home, which has three generations living under one roof. Although the pretext of the visit is supposedly to look up the convalescent grandmother, it also is an exercise in finding out how his family members would accept the vitiligo-affected doctor as his wife.
Dr. Neeraja is constantly being observed by some member of the family.
According to Sukthankar, “We could have left the film open-ended by showing her back in the profession establishing her identity, but that would not in anyway obliterate the stigma attached to the skin condition nor establish her acceptability as a ‘marriageable’ person.
From the urbane milieu delineated in ‘Nital,’ viewers are taken to the barren countryside where the towering mountainous unfriendly terrain is home to shepherds. Superstitions, land-grabbing, caste and gender discrimination dominate the lives portrayed in ‘Baadha’. The barren woman is impure, a bad omen and the patriarchy ensures the victimisation of the woman be it Anshi (Amruta Subhash) from the shepherd community or Sarja (Devika Daftardar), a Dalit woman.
There is more than one reason to harass the Dalit woman – if driven away from the patch of land she occupies, the land is available to the mighty.
Moreover, Sarja belongs to the Mahar community whose men join the army and their women complete their schooling. Sarja therefore helps children from the shepherd families but there is the constant refrain in these homes, “She is a witch, she’ll cast her spell on the child.”
Both ‘Nital’ and ‘Baadha’ have featured in the Indian Panorama section, and earned a clutch of State Awards.
Explaining the recipe for the appeal the films have for Marathi audiences, Sukthankar explains, “We internalise the message, make it cinematically innovative and entertaining without making it melodramatic or larger than life.”
Subtle balance
One cannot miss the subtle balance that is maintained in the portrayal of the male and female points of view, the credit for which goes to Sumitra Bhave who brings with her years of experience in Women’s Studies, adds the director.
Together they manage to bring in the male and the female points of view in their films without one badgering the other.
The truth as it exists among communities and social strata find a space.
Seven socially relevant feature films and a number of short films together are proof of the smooth working relationship the Bhave-Sukthankar combine has achieved in a tough creative exercise like filmmaking.
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