Renowned documentary director Ram Alladi is back with a new project, Panne. Sharing some exclusive details in an exclusive chat with The Pioneer, the director speaks in depth about the project, women playing pivotal
roles in his movie,
and more.
SHIKHA DUGGAL
The famous documentary director Ram Alladi is back — up and running with a new screenplay on board titled Panne. He was beaming with pride on the telephonic call all the way abroad because his next is all about colonial rule, but from the stance of women. He demonstrated that heroic figures cannot be only men who sacrificed their lives for independence — there were superfluities of women too.
He sparks the conversation right there by saying, “This film was built upon one of the common fundamentals of society: freedom. Leading to a solid relationship between politics and patriotism! Being patriotic or political are the same for me. The main purpose of these two is to support the nation, enterprise, or family. But in some places, they both are isolated into different places of the society.”
Starting from the border, he politically layered it so well with the help of the shadows of the religion that you can’t seem but fathom what’s being shown to you on-screen.
As a features director, he continued, “These kinds of variations will give the goosebump situations in any story. So, any spectator who is looking at the patriotism scene will become patriotic, and the same is with being political. Hence, the amalgamation. But there came my first hurdle. It was writing the screenplay — I didn’t want to narrate this in a regular vanilla style. The story revolves around two different timelines, like after independence and at the time of independence. So, weaving two different mindsets of the main characters is a big job and the most delicate one.”
The stumbling blocks didn’t end there, “Writing one of the prime characters called Swarna Dutta was tough; she has two variations in two different times of independence. With this character played by Shilpa Das, you’ll feel how a poisonous snake evolves. She has done a great job. I used the non-linear screenplay adaptation to achieve this!”
Little did you know, many villages were burnt down by the fanatics, so from the embers of those ashes, this story has taken birth. The screenwriter speaks further, “The story starts with an opening scene from a few weeks after August 14, 1947, somewhere near the two nations’ border. But it also has another connection into 1946, a place called Noakhali from a different side of the border. I took advantage of using fictional conversation loosely based on the Noakhali massacre to visualize these different atmospheres, like social and economical circumstances after the massacre.”
Doesn’t end there because here is the main trivia we were looking for with Ram to unfurl, “The story also connects to the Naxal movement in Telangana back in the sixties! So, I took care of not isolating them but centralising them with all these atmospheres with a flavor called independence.”
We are aware of how he doesn’t treat the women in his screenplay like a decorative object, and as mentioned above, since it’s also a story from the outlook of women — we wanted to know the details. He described, “Women are not a cosmetic place-holder in my movie. Rather, they play pivotal roles in it! This gender always has a uniqueness in the world of story-telling. Problem, solution, sorrow or happiness can be expressed by women in a unique way. So, there are many acts played by women, like a war widow, a stepdaughter, a religious victim, a woman who survived from the death of social insecurity, a woman who always dreams to live with the wealthy social tags in the movie!”
Besides, “For example, I created a character called Bharati Padayachi, by skills, who is a constitutional rights activist and a burn victim from a social allegation. It is a powerful character in Delhi who works directly for Das, one of the protagonists, played by Neehari Mandali, who is a burn victim in her real life. All these female characters fight or seek independence.”
Of freedom, friendship, and some betrayal, the movie may turn into a classic piece, at least that’s what the producer also hopes for. He mentioned, “My research wasn’t about women — I wanted to discuss only the weak and their pursuit! So, I took a start with a person who is socially weak and her goal to become socially strong.
I had this idea while I was writing for my previous film, in which Mahatma Gandhi meets a little girl on a train to Durban and learns about her maiden name after her marriage. So, my thought process started working on how to describe a person’s social weakness, or how independence could solve their problem. But later I learnt that it’s not just social freedom but individual freedom also, and how they both are interlinked! All the tales I heard from my childhood about India’s freedom struggle were a really big plus in my research. So, I really had a clear idea about the costumes and the periodic sets. Most of the costumes were made from khadi material only to keep the authenticity.”
Elaborating further, “Women are the subject, the political system is the problem, social imbalances are the symptoms, patriotism is the rhythm, and independence is the solution. There are numerous films that came out on independence lines. A few of them were unique. Unlike them, my movie is totally fictional. No living or dead entities will be seen in this movie except for a few timelines, geographical places, and their social circumstances.”
Being an NRI from the past two decades, he knows few who migrated from India, and they don’t even want to see the pursuit of independence on celluloid screen, which India had, unless it is bundled with wild animal instinct patriotism, which makes the filmmakers sit in the commercial club. In Ram’s perspective: opinion patriotism is not an aggressive act; it’s a devotion towards your nation. So, along with the fictional elements, the difference or uniqueness in the movie would be the style of narration which attracts audiences to watch his screenplay.
The filmmaker also said, “It’s not a dark movie. It has colorful acts with much more brightness. Sometimes the brightness has to be balanced with a little darkness. That’s why you see a few dark scenes. As I said earlier, all the tales I heard from my childhood inspired me to write such intensive work. Tales include those from text books, movies, television, and also from my NRI life. But it is a feel good movie targeting all ages of audiences to experience the human’s effort for freedom in the great battle called ‘us versus we’.”
