Indu Lakshmi had listened with interest to one of the last interviews given by the late poet and activist Sugathakumari. It was only an audio clipping, recorded at a time the poet was unwell and tired. But Indu could sense in her voice a fire, a passion that refused to fade. She thought of her own experience at a time of painful surgeries. She believes it is her will power that got her through all that pain. This thought, about what the mind is capable of even when the body is weak, led her to write the story of Nila, the first film she directed.
Nila is one of the two films chosen for funding by the Kerala government in the second year of its project to produce movies made by women. Produced by the Kerala State Film Development Corporation (KSFDC), Nila will preview on March 8, International Women’s Day. Indu, excited and nervous, is also eager to know how the film will be received.
“We were not asked for a theme. But naturally, it being a woman empowerment project, most of us wrote stories with that in mind,” Indu says. In Nila, a 75-year-old woman leads the story, forming an unusual friendship in a late stage of her life. Shanthi Krishna who made a marked comeback in 2017 with Njandukalude Nattil Oridavela plays the elderly woman. She and actor Vineeth lead the film forward.
Indu with Shanthi Krishna
“It worked for me that they both liked the script. And they felt guaranteed by a film chosen by the KSFDC for funding,” Indu says. Except for a workshop given by scriptwriter Anjum Rajabali during the selection process, the women directors were left alone to do their work on their own terms.
Indu chose her actors carefully. Shanthi Krishna, she says, had no qualms about playing a character almost 20 years older than her. Both Shanthi and Vineeth made Indu feel at ease, trusting her to do the job she had set out to do. “It was a challenge. I feared how I would do the film with these very senior actors. Mamukkoya too plays an important character, inspired from a real life person. But I told myself that I am not making the entire film in one go, it is frame by frame, shot by shot, and I will just focus on that one frame or shot,” Indu says.
Indu and Mammukoya
She is not entirely new to filmmaking. Indu has made three short films before – Alikhitham, Utharakadalasu, and Mareechika – all of which won accolades and recognition in different avenues. “But there were many aspects that were new to me. I had not worked on a feature film set before. I didn’t know what a unit or a unit bus was, or what the role of the camera associate or assistant was. These are things you understand and learn.”
Indu also wrote the script for another feature film around the same time. Daayam (Inheritance), directed by Prasanth Vijay, was selected to the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC)'s Film Bazaar Recommends list last November. It tells a story of grief, of how one girl deals with the loss of her mother, and learns more about her father. The mother’s loss comes from Indu’s personal life, and the father is a mix of several real life characters in news stories, she says.
“Writing and directing are two entirely different processes and both are extremely enjoyable. When you write you are in a sort of meditative state, in a different world of the story you create. When you direct, you are bringing out the world you have created inside your mind. For me it was very easy to communicate to the actors what I had in mind, the visuals were all very clear.”
Vineeth and Indu
It also helped that she had a great crew with her, Indu says. “Rakesh Dharan, who handled the cinematography, made sure that in the limited spaces we had during the pandemic the visuals gelled so very well with the script. I am also indebted to Appu Bhattathiri, the editor, and Bijibal, who composed the music for Nila. Every actor has also been co-operative,” she adds.
Only last month, the film Divorce – one of the first two films made as part of the KSFDC’s project to fund women filmmakers – was released. However, the film’s director Mini IG had spoken out about the indifferent attitude shown by the KSFDC in releasing the film, and how it got pushed by more than two years after it was made.