Probing an Asterisk
Students from the city campus participate in the festival with a film inspired by reality. SYEDA FARIDA finds out :
SHOOTING STARS - The young filmmakers of "Nageswara Rao 'Star' " look beyond hep and happening to explore larger issues.
An admission list on a campus notice board with a few asterisks, denoting reservation categories, bag eyeballs. No memorandum here. The disquiet against this practice takes the shape of a film that students make as part of a campus assignment. The film - Nageswara Rao 'Star' - was screened at the recently concluded Hyderabad International Film Festival.
Citing the asterisk, "Outside the campus we don't have a different identity. We decided to write a script relating to our identity and linked to historical incidents. The film was inspired by the Tsundur massacre. Nageswara Rao, also the protagonist in the film, hails from a place near Tsundur. The massacre affected some part of his existence," says the young filmmaker Rajesh Mandhapati, a M.A Communications fourth semester student, SN School, University of Hyderabad.
Moving beyond regular News Bulletin productions that most Communication students produce, making a short film of festival standards on campus was a feat for the young achievers who decided to select a sombre theme for a narrative. "Discrimination is in-built in any set up -be it on class, caste or gender. Further, it is easy to speak on hep and happening things. There are issues, such as reservation, which you come across in hostels and classrooms. Just that people don't talk about them. When you have a student sitting next to you telling the story, you start thinking," says Nikhila Henry, who worked on the film script with Shonreichon. Rajesh and Nikhila, who edited the film, have public service messages on the Girl Child for UNICEF and Prasar Bharati Awards to their credit. Siva Kumar comes on board on the concept.
Journalist-turned-filmmaker William Nessen's narrative set in Indonesia served as an influence for these filmmakers. As part of the course we have to see a lot of films. What inspired us to make this film in the format was The Black Road - Inside Aceh's Struggle for Independence screened at the Mumbai International Film Festival that we attended. We used the self-reflective mode of narration that the film showcased. It is good that Hyderabad is coming up with Film Festivals," says Shonreichon who aims to be a Writer.
The two months of production saw the team travelling. " We went to the villages and met the families of victims. Most wanted to let the wider audience know about the issue. The film was shot in various locales in the city and on campus. We did not want it to sound as a dry documentary. Further it is not victimisation but identity assertion," adds Nikhila.
Talking about the striking title for their flick - "We did not decide upon it till we edited the film. We never expected to screen the film at a festival," says Nikhila who plans to be a media professional, much like the journalist in The Black Road.
Post festival plans ahead for the stars include working on their untitled short film, a 10-15 minute fiction film and class assignment. "It is again about discrimination. I think we are obsessed by the concept. This one looks at class discrimination through a narrative that features an encounter between a raddiwala and a rich girl," says Rajesh as he looks forward to making feature films in some time for a vocation.
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