- Arts Illustrated June & July 2016 - Section - 7 Cinema

I wanted to start with this whole It’s actually an understanding of winning is always considered to term of ‘parallel cinema’ that’s my society. In fact, when Marx be with power and force – always associated with your work. used that term, it’s a bit conde- whereas Gandhi said that one Do you think this is a very scending, I thought. This ‘village can also win over people by intellectual tag? Does it bother you? idiocy’ itself… there is no ‘urban sacrificing, by Satyagraha or else idiocy’. So they seem to think by negotiating. Hasina is totally When we are making a film, you that the villages lack some kind of Satyagraha, she goes and sits in know, these things do not bother intellectual capacity to under- front of a mosque and asks for us at all. What we concentrate on stand things, which is not true. justice. Nagi (Dweepa) tries to are the characters, the situations, My characters are actually my negotiate and wins; she doesn’t the politics, the images. We don’t attempt to understand what, in think it is demeaning, or losing even bother if it’s going to be a Sanskrit, we call ‘dharanai’, her principles. And Thaayi commercial success, whether it’s which is something that is there, Sahiba, by sacrificing her land, going to be branded as popular which makes you carry on with sacrificing her zamindari, she cinema, commercial cinema, art your life. Similarly, all the wins over the affection of her Beneath the divided sky cinema, parallel cinema. So these characters have their own people. So these are three ways are actually coined by the worldview, their own comprehen- of winning, three triumphs. National award winning director Girish Kasaravalli talks about his cinema and how the journalists and critics because sion of what is right and what is constantly changing urban landscape is important, and extraneous, in keeping with the they want to categorise and wrong. In that, some people are How do you manage to keep the classify and simplify it for the able to carry themselves with focus of the story’s intent alive? language of his cinema relevant reader, to explain what they dignity, without losing their mean. Whenever they write integrity. I see that more in First and foremost, for me, is the about our films, they use these women than in men. I’m trying emotional impact of the film. terms; when I write about my to understand what it is that How does it work? I have a little films, I just say ‘my’ films. makes them so strong. That’s why, convention in the sense that I the three films that I made in the need to have a very strong In one of your earlier interviews, middle period, Thaayi Sahiba dramaturgy in the film. The you said your films are about people (1997), Dweepa (2002) and second thing is the conceptual PRAVEENA SHIVRAM who aren’t already politicised and Hasina (2004), are based on the script. How does the concept aware of their situations. That concepts of fighting for justice emerge? What am I trying to say they aren’t what Marx calls as propagated by Gandhi. Ashis through this character, this ‘village idiocy’ but they have an Nandy said that Gandhi’s greatest situation, through this drama? innate instinct on how to respond achievement was bringing Most of my films are based on meaningfully to a situation. It that femininity to the concept of Kannada literary works. So the In the documentary made and grey hair sitting on him with his own way, he has continued to an extension of who you are? politics and war –because war or plot line is there, but I am trying on Girish Kasaravalli by a silence of a tame bird. But, only root himself in the urban way of O.P. Srivastava titled ‘Life in almost, because there is such an life, always observing and joining Metaphors’, which incidentally irresistible aura of nonchalance the dots, most of which remain won the National Award for Best around him that quite masterfully invisible, to give us a wholesome Documentary this year, we see he pulls your gaze towards cinematic experience that is Kasaravalli standing under an something unseen, towards infinite in its far-reaching impact umbrella, light rain making something that holds the weight and yet, quite easily traceable to everything intensely lush around of a metaphor with an authority the centre from where it began. him. The film begins and ends that can only come with vision, ‘He is global in his message, but here, this imagery of a filmmaker clear as the surface of the ocean in his choice of subject, detail, with a whole reel of national and and deep for all the life it holds within. he is very local,’ rightly says international awards to his credit, You realise with the suddenness UR Ananthamurthy in the looking so disarmingly ordinary. of an epiphany that this quality is documentary, a celebrated Indian You are almost disappointed by what characterises all of his work writer whose work, Ghatashraddha, the lack of flamboyance, the and why he remains one of Kasaravalli had adapted for quiet shunning of theatrics, his India’s most celebrated film- his film. white shirt and brown waistcoat makers. And you realise, how in

Still from the filmDweepa , 2002

- Arts Illustrated June & July 2016 - Cinema - 128 - Arts Illustrated June & July 2016 - Cinema - 129 to build a drama, a screenplay. which is a concept and then I met Girish Kasaravalli in When I am reading or listening juxtaposing the journey of the Bengaluru for the interview in his to a story, certain images start freedom movement with Thaayi house that is filled with little cropping up. When I say images, Saheba…these kinds of things curios, photographs, paintings, I don’t mean visual images. slowly start occurring in my plants, furniture and a lot of Images that already have mind. My scripts, therefore, are light, all somehow fitting them- impressions on our mind; it could written over a period of one or selves with designated ease like be a visual or a concept that is two years. coins falling into a slot machine. emerging. Like when I heard the Another example is Koormavatara It felt like bits from each of his story of Thaayi Saheba, I (2012), which was based on a films were right there weaving suddenly saw the possibility of story I had read a long time ago. their stories around you, drawing Still from the filmDweepa , 2002 the journey of Thaayi Saheba as So, when the Anna Hazare move- their energy from the master film- a parallel to the journey of ment began, everyone started maker himself. He spoke in society. The personal politics and calling him Gandhi, and I careful, measured words, at a the politics outside that I can thought there was a need to languid pace that allowed you the juxtapose. Once that was clear, I rethink Gandhian ideology. space to invest in what he was began wondering, where should Today, society has accepted saying. And gradually, almost Thaayi Saheba be? Then I consumerism with open arms. unsuspectingly, you find that you thought of the zamindari Gandhi was against that; he was have entered a neat little clearing background. Then I was one man who was saying we need in the deep end of the forest, so wondering how do I make her to lead an austere life. So what to speak, where thick possibilities adopted son, now a zamindari kind of a dilemma does a man surround you, allowing you the boy, stand out in a crowd? My who wants to become Gandhi, luxury to survey it all from the wife, who is from the northern face? Then I thought of this film, comfort of space he has created Still from the film Thaayi Saheba, 1997 part of Karnataka, said they which is based on a film being for you. normally use attar in those parts. shot, about an actor trying to It is something, I feel, all of his So that becomes the running play Gandhi and his personal life. characters (actors) appreciate and Poster from the filmLife in Metaphors: A Portrait of Girish Kasaravalli, 2015 thread in the film, that the boy That’s how it emerges; it can start function from, because his films cannot hide himself because of with anything. are always an extension of the the attar. So the visual image of a characters he creates. It is their inhabit briefly, just as Kasaravalli to be done from my side, but yes, movement. As a filmmaker, how do zamindari town, the perfume, • world and worldview that we did, transitioning with ease from I am constantly observing. When you keep your films relevant all the creator to observer. you’re walking on the road, you time? In the documentary, Deepti notice certain things, something Naval, who worked with Kasaravalli interesting, this dialogue is It doesn’t come from the details, in the bi-lingual film Mane (1990) interesting, this is meaty; let me it comes from the concerns. Even says, ‘His films are going to store it somewhere, it might work. if you are making a film about remain; it’s a statement of the Not only while walking on the the village of your childhood, you times we are living in’. road, while reading, some can still make it relevant. And they are. They help us interesting things come and I Otherwise, why should one think navigate this world with the store it in my mind. That’s a about history at all? History is invigorating freshness of cold constant process. Sometimes, I very relevant, Tughlaq is very water on a hot day, giving us a listen to music, close my eyes, and relevant, mythology becomes short respite from the sometimes think about the film even though, relevant in most of the cases stifling claustrophobia of reality. as far as music is concerned, I am because that is how you can tone deaf, but I listen to music... interpret it. Often, I find that the It seems like you are a filmmaker it can take you to another place. so-called contemporary films all the time, constantly observing based on contemporary events and cross-referencing ideas. Do you When we look at our childhood or fall flat. Though they are talking ever stop? the life that we had, those images about a contemporary issue, they and memories are static, but when do not rise above the issue. It I’m not fed up with this medium we’re living here in the city, doesn’t transcend the time and

Still from the filmGulabi Talkies, 2008 and think there are a lot of things everything is always in a state of space limitation. The relevance

- Arts Illustrated June & July 2016 - Cinema - 130 - Arts Illustrated June & July 2016 - Cinema - 131 Still from the filmKanasemba Kudureyaneri, 2010 distribution is devised to suit their to another. This, I can only read purpose. In Europe and America and understand, but he can you have small theatres. For the experience it. The knowledge past 100 years, we have never enhances the experience; it thought of having theatres like doesn’t become a stumbling that, it is always bigger the better. block. And, the bigger the better not only in terms of the size of the • theatre but also the budget, and so on. If we understand this If last year was the year of the politics, then we know why our small-budget Tamil film Kaakaa films are not doing well. Not that Muttai, then this year seems the audiences are rejecting them. to belong to Thithi, a small- Audiences don’t even get a budget Kannada film by Raam chance to see them,’ he says. Reddy, which after making waves internationally, is being released But Kasaravalli, for all his in theatres across the country, at meticulous analysis of how the least the metros. In a country film industry in India functions, largely crazy about big-budget, for all his muted fervour for larger-than-life bonanzas, such change in how cinema is films usually fall through the consumed, remains undeterred cracks. Early this year, Kasaravalli when it comes to his practice found himself embroiled in a itself. ‘My third film, called Three controversy when he said it was Pathways, based on a novel by ‘insensitive’ to award the Best Yashwant Chittal, was a very Film National Award to Baahu- ambitious film. It was the last bali, the opulent mythological black and white film in Kannada, Still from the film Hasina, 2004 drama in Telugu, by ‘ignoring the and the lab where I was best regional language films, processing the negatives closed which touched upon issues down, and something happened plaguing society’. ‘When you in the process where half of my discuss the film, you need to look negatives got exposed and I at the other politics that operates couldn’t complete the film the in the industry,’ he says. ‘That’s way I wanted to. It took me eight nothing to do with the work of years to get over that and make art, nothing to do with the film, my next film.’ that’s another kind of politics, It is, perhaps, something he has which is the politics of film learnt from his characters – this culture. There are big-budget will to move on, this dharanai, as players, there are small-budget he called it that remains unfazed does not depend on whether it is contemporary, or what is happening players, there are players who use even when he loses half his film. today. Even something that happened hundred years ago, if you this medium to make money and But then, Kasaravalli is safely understand its conceptual content, it becomes relevant. there are players who use this cocooned within his definition of medium to say something. filmmaking, keeping the unpre- Do you look at cinema as a viewer? Is it one of the banes of a filmmaker, Unfortunately, in India, the whole dictable, the uninformed and the that you can’t ever see it as a viewer, you have to see it only as a filmmaker? industry infrastructure is in the unevolved at bay when he says in hands of the people who are ‘Life in Metaphors’: ‘I am not I don’t know what this ‘viewer’ is. While watching a film, I’m a viewer. using cinema as a business. It’s making a perfect film; I am I don’t look at being a filmmaker as a stumbling block. I’ll take the not in the hands of the people making an imperfect film.’ same analogy… I listen to music, but I do not understand music. But if who think of it as a tool for Stills from the filmGhatashraddha, 1977 a man who understands music is there, his enjoyment is more than self-exploration or art or what- mine. He can also understand how the singer is moving from one swara ever it is. And so, exhibition and

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