The film, directed by debutante Tara Ramanujan, won the Best Film Award at the Ottawa Indian Film Festival
The film, directed by debutante Tara Ramanujan, won the Best Film Award at the Ottawa Indian Film Festival
Tara Ramanujan’s first directorial debut Nishidho (Forbidden) may have been adjudged the second best feature film at the 52nd Kerala State Film Awards and the best feature film at the Ottawa India Film Festival (OIFFES), but she admits to wondering how much she can do some things. could have done differently. “People who were part of the film constantly tell me that the film is done and stop thinking like this. But I still do it sometimes,” Tara says with a laugh.
Nishidho A multi-layered film about two migrants – Chavi and Rudra – from Tamil Nadu and West Bengal respectively. The film explores the weak-not-so-romantic-relationship between the two in the backdrop of Kochi. “They’re both fish out of water, they don’t speak the same language, yet they manage to communicate with each other. Chhavi is Malayali-Tamil, but she’s out here and meets Rudra, an idol maker. The construction worker, from West Bengal, is an outsider. Their approach is similar, yet different,” Tara tells over the phone from Thiruvananthapuram.
Kani Kusruti and Tanmay Dhanania in the film. photo credit: special arrangement
Apart from Kochi, the film has been shot in Kolkata, Madurai and Perumbavur. Due to COVID-19 and lockdown restrictions, she says that she has not been able to make Kochi look the way she wanted. “I wanted to show the Ernakulam railway station with the crowd, but could not. Even with Kolkata…luckily the cinematographer was able to take shots of Durga Puja.”
It was shot in 2021, in 28 days, but it felt like a long time, she says. Nishidho Was screened at Bangalore International Film Festival (BIFFES) 2022 and International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK). “It was a great feeling to be selected for IFFK, it was tremendous. The first time people said nice things about it, I thought it was a sham but then when more people started appreciating it, I relieved it wasn’t [a fluke],
Tara’s thoughts on how KSFDC helps
It is a good idea to give opportunity to aspiring female writers/directors to direct a film, otherwise they may not get a chance to do so. The film industry is highly competitive and directing a film seems like a long shot for a novice.
Filmmaking takes a lot of effort, time and money. That putting all that risk on someone new can be difficult for producers, especially when looking for a ‘successful’ film, however you can define successful. I think it’s great to give women directors a chance to express their creativity. Looks like the selection process is working.
Now there is a workshop in which the selected screenplays are being modified and the help of professionals is being taken. We need to give some time to new ideas, new projects to work our way. Movies are stories. And we need different voices, platforms, interpretations etc to make those stories interesting, entertaining, thought provoking, maybe even to bring awareness and change in some positive way.
Had the Kerala State Film Development Corporation (KSFDC) not picked up the screenplay as part of its ‘Film directed by women’ project in 2021, Nishidho would not have been done. It was one of two chosen to encourage and empower women directors, the other being Mini IG’s divorce,
“The story was moving in my mind from 2014-15. Three friends and I tried to make a film of it in 2018, but it didn’t work out and we gave up. I thought of turning the script into a story or a book. That’s when, in 2019, KSFDC called for the script. By the time the script was picked (in 2020), COVID-19 had hit, and the lockdown was followed,” she says.
Kani Kusruti and Tanmay make an impact as Dhananiya, Chhavi and Rudra, two men are negotiating their way into a city they call home. He is happy with the way the actors have done. When she explained to her acquaintances how she wanted to be, a colleague suggested Kanye, “I was not familiar with her work at the time. I sent her the script, she liked it and was in. Similarly Tanmay was suggested by another friend. He has very expressive eyes, there is something about him that made him Rudra. This is not Tara’s first script, she scripted earlier samarpanamA film directed by K Gopinathan.
In an earlier interview, she said that she likes to explore the dark, intuitive side of the human psyche. does Nishidho do that? “Suggesting a darker side, the characters are as brown as humans are.”
So what Nishidho, “Things that we say or do. Are there some things we don’t do because it is morally wrong or because society tells us not to do it?”