Kannada film Thutturi directed by P. Sheshadri got the National Award for the best film on environment conservation for year 2006. Incidently, this is his fourth National Film Award in a row. The young director, who started out as a journalist, believes in a style that is easy and reaches out to a large number of people.
The choices made by him during his career are what helped him giving his best as a film director. During the mid-'80's, he took up a sub-editor's job with Suddi Sangaati. Even as he was on the film beat he had a fascination for the visual medium. Clearly he was in awe of the big screen's potential. "I would go out of my way to meet people, interact with them. Never did it merely as duty." Those 10 months on the beat was bliss. But how long could one survive on cerebral pleasures? Keeping the hearth burning on a salary of Rs. 1,000 was tough. "Also, it was a killing routine. A gruelling eight hours with hardly any productivity, and sometimes humiliating too. I longed to do something path-breaking."
Friends stood by him, urged him to follow his instincts and take the plunge. Seshadri started working as film director Nagabharana's assistant. Like many bright talents in the industry, Seshadri's learning didn't happen in the classroom of a film institute, watching the best of films and reading the best of film literature. All his learning was happening on the sets. Nevertheless, he was watching a lot of cinema and formulating his own thoughts, though he did miss someone with whom he could hold intelligent discussions. But he has no regrets. "When I did my journalism course, I thought I was prepared to work as a journalist. Eventually, I realised that my formal training had nothing to do with demands on field." He extends the same logic to his filmmaking. "When you see my films you realise that I'm not in any groove. My style is very individualistic and don't stick to a formula."
In his first big move towards film making, when he wrote the dialogues and screenplay for a Kannada film, he found that there were too many changes made in what he had created. “It was then that I realised that the captain of the ship was the director. If there was a way to directly reach the people with what I wanted to say, it had to be as a director.” Sheshadri had no illusions about the world of cinema when he made his first film, Munnudi. He knew how difficult it was to get a producer to finance his film and then distribute it. “I had no delusions that I could be part of the Gandhinagar network. One thing was very clear when I made my first film; we had to look after every stage of the making— from the direction to production, post-production and finally getting it to the people.”
For Munnudi & Athithee, Sheshadri and a group of close associates formed a film co-operative called ‘Nava Chitra’ consisting of nine people and repeated the effort with another group called Mitra Chitra for Beru. Each person invested money in the film and this included the cast, cinematographer, editors, music director and the technicians.
With a meagre budget of Rs 15 lakhs, Sheshadri went on to make Munnudi, which got him his first National award. “Only by investing in the film would everybody get a feeling that it belonged to him. It was in everybody’s interest to economise and work on a tight schedule. Anything that cost more than Rs 50 had to be paid for by cheque. Everybody tried to cut costs in his or her department.”
Athithee (The Guest) cost a little more (Rs 18 lakhs) and was helped by the fact that actor Prakash Raj did not charge a fee. Sheshadri says that more than getting big producers to finance the so-called ‘art’ films, it would help if big-budget actors volunteered to work in one such movie a year. “We call them ‘crowd-pullers’. If they act in such movies, then their faithful fan following would ensure that more people would come to cinema theatres.”
Thuthoori is the first Sheshadri-directed film that was not financed through his co-operative group. It would seem an interesting wait to see what happens in the life of this dedicated filmmaker. He certainly has many more stories to tell.
The Fantastic Four
Munnudi (Preface) is the story of a mother of a teenaged girl who lived in a small village on the coast of Arabian Sea, who raised the first dissident cry against a ritual where every woman of the village was to go to bed as temporary wife with a new husband annually.
Athithee (The Guest) is an attempt to examine flashes of humanity of a young man totally immersed in the cult of terrorism. The film revolves around two such characters – a terrorist and a well meaning doctor and examines how they affect each other.
Beru (The Root) is an attempt to give a wake-up call to raise the consciousness of society about corruption and bribery in the country’s governing system. It reflects the degradation of moral values, lack of commitment and the overall apathy of the public.
Tuttoori (Bugle), is a film by children and for children. Unlike other children's films that have mostly adults in their cast and are tediously moralistic, this one has mostly children and their battle against the system. Today's children, among other things, have a big problem of finding a space to play. Tuttoori addresses this issue in a playful manner.
Sources:
http://www.deccanherald.com/archives/aug282005/finearts632242005827.asp
http://www.hindu.com/fr/2005/07/01/stories/2005070103060100.htm
http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/fr/2005/10/07/stories/2005100702980100.htm
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