Outlook – July 20, 2019

long shot

58 OutlOOk 22 July 2019

“I am inspired by my observations of life, which

form the basis of my stories,” he tells Outlook. “I

observe real people and their lives which gener-

ate many stories in my mind. Walking With The

Wind is one such film.”

Of late, there has been no dearth of intrepid

filmmakers such as Praveen who are travelling

an extra mile to make movies in diverse lan-

guages set in the regions where they are spoken.

Debutant Ridham Janve made the brilliant The

Gold-Laden Sheep & The Sacred Mountain in

Gaddi dialect, spoken primarily by shepherds in

Himachal Pradesh. It is about an old shepherd

who leaves his herd to find the pilot of an aircraft

which has crashed in the upper Himalayas. “I

had spent some time in the mountains and

wanted to make a movie in their language,”

Ridham says. “I also chose not to hire any pro-

fessional actor but the locals for my film.”

t

HE outcome was an amazing film with

breathtaking visuals and outstanding per-

formances. Similar was the case of another

debutant auteur Shareef Easa, who made

Kanthan: The Lover of Colour in Ravula language

spoken by the Adiya community of Wayanad in

Kerala. It won the Kerala State Film Award for

Best Film this year.

The tribe of such filmmakers has been growing

steadily of late. Last year, Sandeep Pampally’s

Sinjar in Jasari, a dialect of Malayalam spoken in

Lakshadweep, and Abhaya Simha’s Paddayi in

Tulu, won the National Awards. This year, Priya

Rama subban’s Chuskit in Ladakhi and Bobby

Sarma -Baruah’s Mishing—The Apparition in She-

r dukpen, the language spoken by a tribal com -

munity of the same name in Arunachal Pradesh,

have made an impact though none of them is

likely to have a regular theatrical release.

Utpal Borpujari, National Award-winning

critic and director, says it is not the commercial

aspect but the urge to tell stories in their own

languages that motivates these filmmakers. “In

any case, when you are telling a story about a

particular community, it is best told in its own

language so as to capture the cultural and soci-

etal nuances in the best way.”

Borpujari, who made the acclaimed Assamese

film Ishu (2017) on the social evil of witch-hunt-

ing seen through a child’s eyes, says that theat-

rical release of these films is near impossible

because they cater to small audiences. “Many

films have been made in the ethnic languages of

Arunachal Pradesh,” he says. “But such movies

will hardly draw an audience even in Itanagar

because few will understand the different tribal

languages.” The only silver lining, according to

Borpujari, is the advent of digital platforms.

“These streaming platforms may provide a

global audience for such films,” he says. “I don’t

know how much a movie streamed on those

platforms will earn for a filmmaker but telling

a story in their own languages shall rem ain his

prime motivation.” O

Director

Utpal

Borpujari

says that

filmmakers

are pushed

by the urge

to tell stories

in their own

languages

MoviEtonE Still from

The Gold-Laden Sheep &

The Sacred Mountain

(left); and Kanthan: The

Lover of Colour.