When Payal Kapadia was still a student at FTII (Film and Television Institute of India), she wanted to make a short film. “We were all completing the course and thinking about going to Mumbai to work. Maybe that was something that all of us were talking about. I wanted to make a film about women working in Mumbai. So, I got interested in the profession of nursing. Because nursing is one profession where a lot of women will leave their hometowns to come and work in cities. Otherwise, for women, it's always complicated with the family. Like how you explain that you will go somewhere else to work, why you are going and all that,” she said.
She added, “So (I) felt that the nursing profession allowed me this script to take place in Mumbai. I met a lot of nurses, and I did a lot of research. Met young girls aspiring to be nurses who are still in Kerala, not yet come to Mumbai. And from there I got all the kind of material for the film.”
Speaking of the impeccable cast of the film, Kapadia said, “It was very complicated. Because it was my first film, I was also learning how I want to do casting. Because even though I made short films, which were fiction when I was a student in FTII, doing a feature is a whole different thing. So, I wanted to be very particular about who to cast and all. So, Chhaya Kadam ji, for example, I always knew I wanted to cast her. I had seen her in this movie Fandry 10 years ago in Pune. And she had done a very amazing role in that film. So, I wanted to work with her but of course I was a little hesitant. Because she is a veteran actress and for me, I am a newbie.”
The filmmaker added, “But when I met her and we spoke about the script, she and the character actually have a lot of similarities. Because the character is from Ratnagiri and she is from the Konkan. So, the language there, like she was speaking Hindi with that Konkan accent and everything. So, she was really bringing all those layers to the character. I was only happy that she agreed to work with me. With Kani (Kusruti), actually I have always wanted to work with her also. Because I had seen her in 2-3 short films. She has incredible range. She can do anything as an actor. So, I have always wanted to work with her. And I had been talking to her about this film for many years. And sending her the script and all that. And she was always very supportive and interested.”
“I was not finding anybody for the younger girl's role at all,” said Kapadia. “I searched a lot. I went to colleges. I thought I would get a fresh face. Then I saw Divya Prabha in a film. And that performance was very, very strong. But I thought, this girl is acting well but her personality is so serious. Because in that role, she was very serious. But I said, she is acting really well, let me call her and meet her.”
Speaking of locational hazards while shooting in Mumbai, Payal Kapadia said, “Sometimes we used to get permission. That's when we used to block roads and shoot at night. But in some locations, like the one we shot in Muhammad Ali Road, it's very difficult to get permission there. And we were only getting a slot at four in the morning. It's not that easy to do that. In some places, we just decided that we will shoot with a small camera. Like a documentary film. Ratnagiri is where the second half is shot. And there is a long history of people coming from Ratnagiri to live and work in Mumbai, across the 20th century. Most of the people who worked in the mills were from Ratnagiri. And the Parel-Dadar area, where the mills used to be, the identity of Ratnagiri, the food there, the language there, you will see that a lot in this area.”
She added, “So, I wanted my protagonist Parvati (Chhaya Kadam) to also be from Ratnagiri. And when she loses her home in Mumbai, she has to go back to Ratnagiri. I wanted to draw a line between the people of Ratnagiri... Because in Ratnagiri, right now also you will find that most families have one person who is working in Mumbai. So, there is a very strong connection between this Konkan region and Mumbai. And I wanted to continue with that connection.”
This writer also asked the director the moment about the episode with the Drowning Man. She said, “In the second part of the film, I wanted to kind of have a magic realism. Because Prabha (Kani Kusruti)'s character is not able to express her desires. And I think in our culture also, there is a kind of difficulty for women to express their feelings and express their desires. So, sometimes we solve this with folk stories or like a kind of a fable. Like the short story called Duvidha, in that the husband is a ghost. There are a lot of stories in Gujarat that you can read about. Like folk tales from Rajasthan, Gujarat, even Karnataka. Which will have the desires of women, when they can't express it, then they take a folk form. Where the husband becomes a ghost or a tree or a dog. She can express her feelings through that other object or through that other being.”
The young filmmaker added, “So, I felt that even in my situation, I wanted to play on that magic realism and that folk tale, fable-like quality. Which is present in our literature. I felt I could take that liberty and try this out. Because I didn't want that the husband comes and tells her, you know, you live your life. But more that she herself is saying that I have had enough of you. I think that a kind of morality, which Prabha has internalized, she had to leave that. So, it was important for me that she manifests this husband. And it's all a fantasy. All a kind of dream. Like an afternoon dream.”
Kapadia admitted that she is taken aback by the response to her film. “I didn't have any such expectations. I spent a lot of time raising the money to make this film. So, the fact that I got to make it at all was for me a great, like was for me very important and a kind of achievement in that only that we managed to make the film. Because when it takes so many years, sometimes you wonder if you will be able to make this film or it will just be a script. So, when we collected enough budget to make the film, to say, yes, we can shoot. That for me was the most important moment. And then to finish the film, to be able to shoot it, all those things I can't take for granted. Because each of them took a lot of time and a lot of effort from not just me, so many people. So, I'm just really grateful that so many people appreciated our small film and all the way in Cannes also.”
Next, Payal is making another film based in Mumbai. “I want to make a Mumbai trilogy. And they will have different themes but keeping the core of Mumbai as a city and its contradictions, I'm writing another work at the moment,” she said.
Also Read: Payal Kapadia speaks on Laapataa Ladies being India’s official entry for Oscars over her Cannes Award-winning film All We Imagine As Light: “Oscar is like a lobby”
from Featured Movie News | Featured Bollywood News - Bollywood Hungama
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