What Viewers Want
A slow but steady trickle of low-budget, high-quality
independent films is finding a space in mainstream theatres across India
against all odds – and making money
By Anna MM Vetticad
In the midst of the
hype surrounding big-budget Hindi ventures such as Airlift, Fan and
Housefull 3, you may not have noticed that little Nil Battey Sannata just
completed a nine-week run in some cities. Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari’s directorial
debut starring Swara Bhaskar, Pankaj Tripathi and Ratna Pathak Shah survived
this long despite virtually no marketing. This story about a housemaid who is
determined to give her daughter an education and ambition, triumphed almost
entirely on the strength of rave reviews from professional critics and positive
word of mouth from the audience since its release on April 22.
Several worlds away
from the Agra setting of Nil Battey Sannata is the village where Nagraj
Manjule’s Sairat unfolds. A Marathi film on love across caste barriers
in rural Maharashtra, it was made, reportedly, on a budget of Rs 4 crore,
released all India on April 29, is still going strong in theatres and with over
Rs 80 crore already in its kitty from domestic turnstiles according to press
reports, is among the year’s highest earning Indian films so far.
As Sairat forges
ahead, the Kannada film Thithi – directed by debutant Raam Reddy – has
completed seven weeks in Karnataka theatres and has been wending its way across
the country. Thithi released in its home state in early May, and hit
major urban centres in the rest of India on June 3 armed with strong social-media
endorsements from non-Kannada film stalwarts such as Aamir Khan and Anurag
Kashyap.
The availability of
halls for these films and their box-office fortunes spell happy news for
independent and/or small filmmakers. Clearly, a sufficiently significant
pan-India viewership is interested in languages other than their own mother
tongues and in the experimental winds blowing through the indie circuit across
states.
Take Thithi,
for instance. Who would have thought that a chronicle of the 11 days following an
impoverished, senile villager’s death could result in a whimsical, tragi-comic,
sensitively handled social satire? Yet, that is what Reddy’s film turns out to
be, as it follows the old man’s family in the run-up to the expensive
post-cremation ceremony they are compelled to perform despite the dire economic
straits they are in.
This is not the
kind of film that invites raucous laughter of the sort evoked by British
filmmaker Frank Oz’s Death at a Funeral. Such a comedic tone would in
all likelihood have been out of place considering the circumstances of the
Kannada film’s protagonists. It makes sense then that Thithi is a
quieter, slower film. Part of its charm lies in the fact that it does not fall
into the lazy trap of romanticising poverty to evoke sympathy or being
condescending towards rural India and caricaturing its inhabitants to tickle
the funny bone. The other allure of the gently amusing narrative comes from the
cast of non-professional actors who look and perform as if they have walked out
of their real-life stories and on to the screen to simply be who they are.
Come to think of
it, that is precisely what they have done. Reddy has told the press he cast his
three leads – real-life residents of the Karnataka village Nodekoppalu in which
the story is set – before he co-wrote the story with his colleague Eregowda who
happens to belong to the place; that they observed the trio and life in
Nodekoppalu prior to devising the script.
The result of his
desire to dip into the real world is a smorgasbord of delightful actors – all
from Nodekoppalu – and acutely observed characters. The starting block of this
bitter-sweet tale is the cranky Century Gowda (played by Singrigowda), who dies
at the age of 101. His uncaring, unworldly offspring Gadappa (Channegowda)
wanders aimlessly around the village, showering affection on no one and nothing
but his brandy and beedis. Gadappa’s financially desperate son Thamanna
(Thammegowda S) wants the family property transferred in his name. The fourth
generation in the picture is Thamanna’s horny son Abhi (Abhishek SN) lusting
after a pretty and strong-willed shepherdess.
Despite its
rootedness in Nodekoppalu, Thithi is blessed with a universality that
has won hearts across the world through its seemingly simple yet complex plot
and unexpected sense of humour. Last year Thithi won awards at the
Locarno International Film Festival, Mumbai, Marrakech and Palm Springs. It
scooped up awards in India and abroad this year too, topping it off with the
National Award for 2015’s Best Kannada Film.
None of this should
in any way suggest that the trials of small-budget independent cinematic
ventures in India are over. Far from it. Most still struggle to make the
journey from the film festival circuit to a theatrical release. Those that manage
to come to theatres have a tough time getting good time slots in prime venues.
Big corporates that sometimes pick them up for distribution barely promote
them. And barring some individuals, the supposedly ‘national’ mainstream news
media based in Delhi and Mumbai – read: the English language media
headquartered in these cities – are notoriously indifferent to all Indian
cinemas other than Hindi, which serves as a double whammy for non-Hindi indies.
The simultaneous
success of the likes of Sairat, Thithi and Nil Battey Sannata this
year is a pointed reminder to the media, distributors and theatre owners that
they have completely underestimated audience interest in small and/or indie
films across languages. Moral of the story: never assume – without checking – what
readers and viewers (do not) want.
(This article was first published in The Hindu
Businessline on June 25, 2016)
Original link:
Previous instalment of Film
Fatale: The Diary of a Frustrated Indian Film Buff
Related article by Anna M.M. Vetticad:
Interview with Pankaj Tripathi: “Modi is
the traditional Hindustani hero, Kejriwal is the common man”
Photo captions: Stills/posters from (1) Thithi (2) Sairat (3) Nil Battey Sannata
Photographs courtesy:
