Thursday, December 15, 2011

திரைப்பட விழாக்களிலும் தணிக்கையை நுழைக்காதே!






 முற்று முழுவதுமாக திரைப்பட ஊடகம் வணிகமயமாக்கப்பட்டிருக்கும் சூழலில் வணிகம் சாராத மாற்றுச் சினிமாக்களும் வணிக நிறுவனங்கள் சாராத சுயாதீனமான (Independant) திரைப்படக் கலைஞர்களுக்கும் களம் அமைத்துத் தரும் வெளியாகவும் இத்தகைய மாற்றுச் சினிமாக்களை சினிமா பார்வையாளர்களிடம் எடுத்துச் செல்லும் பாலமாகவும் திரைப்பட விழாக்களே இருக்கின்றன. திரையரங்குகளும் வெளியீட்டாளர்களும் கிட்டாத திரைக்கலைஞர்கள் உலகம் முழுவதும் இவ்வாறான திரைப்பட விழாக்களை நம்பியே இயங்கிக் கொண்டிருக்கிறார்கள்.

குறிப்பான நமது தமிழ்ச் சூழலில் மாற்றுச் சினிமாவுக்கான அத்தனை பாதைகளும் மூடப்பட்டே கிடக்கின்றன. அரசோ அல்லது வேறு நிறுவனங்களோ மாற்றுச் சினிமாக்களையும் அரசியல் சினிமாக்களையும் விலக்கியே வைத்திருக்கிறார்கள். முடிந்த போதெல்லாம் இவ்வாறான மாற்றுத் திரைப்பட முயற்சிகளை அவர்கள் பல்வேறு வழிகளிலும் முடக்கவே முயல்கிறார்கள். இந்த அவலமான சூழலுக்குள் இருந்துதான் செங்கடல் திரைப்படம் பல்வேறு நெருக்கடிகளையும் எதிர்கொண்டு உருவாக்கப்பட்டது. செங்கடல் மிக நேரடியாகவே இலங்கைக் கடற்படையால் கொல்லப்பட்ட தமிழக மீனவர்களைக் குறித்தும் தமிழகத்திலிருக்கும் ஈழத்து அகதிகள் குறித்தும் பேசுகிறது. இப்படத்தில் மீனவர்களும் அகதிகளுமே நடித்திருக்கிறார்கள். படத்தின் தயாரிப்பு வேலைகளிலும் அவர்கள் உணர்வுபூர்வமாக பங்கெடுத்துக் கொண்டார்கள். அந்த வகையில் செங்கடல் மக்கள் பங்கேற்புச் சினிமா.

செங்கடல் திரைப்படம் இந்திய இலங்கை அரசுகளை நேரடியாக விமர்சிப்பதாக காரணம் சொல்லப்பட்டு மாநிலத் தணிக்கைக் குழுவால் முடக்கப்பட்டது. ஒரு வருடம் முழுவதும் நீண்ட சட்டப் போராட்த்திற்கு பின்பாக செங்கடலுக்கு தணிக்கைச் சான்றிதழ் அளிக்கப்பட்டது. டர்பன், மொன்றியல், டோக்கியோ, மும்பை, இந்தியன் பனோரமா (கோவா), திருவனந்தபுரம் உள்ளிட்ட பல்வேறு திரைப்பட விழாக்களில் செங்கடல் திரையிடப்பட்டிருக்கிறது. அது NAWFF விருது, GFI Grant ஆகிய விருதுகளைப் பெற்றிருக்கிறது.

இந்தியன் பனோரமாவில் திரையிடப்பட்ட படங்கள் சென்னைத் திரைப்பட விழாவில் பனோரமா பிரிவில் திரையிடப்படும் போது, இந்தியன் பனோரமாவிற்கு இவ்வருடம் தேர்வான ஒரே தமிழ்ப் படமான செங்கடல் ஏன் இந்தத் திரைப்பட விழாவில் நிராகரிக்கப்படுகிறது. இதன் பின்னாலுள்ள அரசியல் (சினிமா) என்ன?

சென்னைத் திரைப்பட விழா ஏற்பாட்டாளர்கள் திரைப்பட விழாவில் தணிக்கையைப் புகுத்துவதையும் அவர்களுக்கு உவப்பான அரசியலைப் பேசாத காரணத்தால் இவ்வாறு திரைப்பட தேர்வுகளில் குளறுபடிகளைச் செய்து, திரைப்பட விழாக்களின் சுதந்திரச் சிந்தனை மரபை அழிக்கும் சீரழிவுச் செயலை நிறுத்திக் கொள்ள வேண்டுமென நாங்கள் அறத்தின் பெயராலும் சுதந்திரக் கலையின் பெயராலும் கேட்டுக் கொள்கிறோம்.


இயக்குநர் B..லெனின்
இயக்குநர் அருண்மொழி
இயக்குநர் அம்ஷன்குமார்
வெளி ரங்கராஜன்
இயக்குநர் மாமல்லன் கார்த்திக்
இயக்குநர் லீனா மணிமேகலை

தொடர்புக்கு : 
பேச : 8939057678
மின்னஞ்சல் : leenamanimekalai@gmail.com

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Banned film finds light at IFFI


Anabelle Colaco, Times of India, 30.11.11


Panaji: For two years, Leena Manimekalai battled the lack of electricity, roads and sanitation, a dearth of funds, an absconding producer, getting arrested or worse, killed, under the constant watchful eye of the Sri Lankan Navy to film ‘Sengadal the Dead Sea’ in Dhanushkodi, Rameshwaram. Two years hence, her fight to highlight the plight of the fishermen form the area and their fight for survival, did not end. The film was denied a screening certificate by the censor board and was banned in India. The reasons give were: Denigrating statements about the Indian and Sri Lankan governments in the film, bi-lateral relations and un parliamentary language by the fishermen. An appeal to the Appellate tribunal quashed the CBFC ban and ordered for a new examination committee. Eight months and a nine-hour-long discussion with a newly appointed CBFC committee later, the film finally got cleared with an adult screening certificate in July.“If I’d agreed to change the script, I’d have got the film cleared the first time around.  I’m a filmmaker and the state has no business to control what I or anyone else has to say. I couldn’t stand watching the fishermen fight for their lives every day and not do something about it,” says Manimekalai, who asserts that she makes films that affect people and is not into mainstream cinema.  

Describing how every dialogue in the film is either a memory of a real life incident or comments by social workers, clippings of newspaper articles and the such like, the Chennai-based filmmaker, poet and actor says, “It was difficult to put it all together and recreate it to make it look real.” Of course, after having fought the lack of electricity, cellphone signals, toilet facilities and public transport (Kambippadu is situated at quite some distance from Rameshwaram which can be traversed only by jeeps and special trucks across the shifting sandy ways along the sea shore), the putting together of the film was comparatively less difficult, she adds.Perhaps her biggest task was getting the necessary permissions to shoot the film. “In fact, 60% of the scenes have been shot illegally. We ventured into the border waters between Sri Lanka and India to film scenes despite not being allowed to, and were hidden by the fishermen under their nets in between the decks of their boats every time the Navy patrolled the area. These fishermen, who venture out to sea not knowing whether they will come back, will give their lives to save you” says Manimekalai adding, “The fishermen, who are brutally killed or beaten up by the Sri Lankan Navy, were involved in almost all activities of the unit like cooking, transport, crowd control and even helping in holding cutters and recording equipments.”  

Describing it as a community film, Manimekalai says that the fishermen of Kambippadu and the Tamil refugees from the Rameshwaram Mandapam refugee camp form the bulk of the artistes in Sengadal. “None of them had ever faced a camera before. The scenes were rehearsed many times with them with script-reading and workshops,” she adds.Dhanushkodi is also under constant surveillance by the coast guard, Indian Navy, CB CID, Q Branch and Intelligence Bureau as the Sri Lankan shore is a mere 18 km from the place. “Why can’t the Indian government intervene instead of watching them die?” Manimekalai asks.

‘Sengadal the Dead Sea’ has been screened at the Official Competition section of Durban and Montreal International Film Festivals, was the only Indian film at the International competition of Mumbai International Film Festival and won the NAWFF award at the Tokyo film festival. “It’s great that the film is being shown at Iffi. The plight of the fishermen is being known even among international audiences. If my film can save even one fisherman, I will be successful. But my dream will be completely realized only when I organize a theatrical release of the film in Tamil Nadu,” says Manimekalai, whose film will be screened for Iffi at 8.30pm , 30.11.11 at INOX Screen 2




 Director of ‘Sengadal the Dead Sea’ Leena Manimekalai, who is in the state to promote her film at Iffi 2011 lashed out at the festival organizers for “postponing” the screening of M F Hussain’s film ‘Through the eyes of a painter’.

M F Hussain

“Shame on the Iffi organizers. How can they fall prey to pressure by right wing organizations? If they’re organizing a film festival they need to be able to protect the rights of filmmakers and their films or not organize the festival at all,” Manimekalai said. The fact that the film will now be screened on Wednesday did not pacify her. “It shouldn’t have been cancelled in the first place,” she added.

Friday, October 28, 2011

Sengadal the Dead Sea / செங்கடல் - Journey



Warm Greetings.

Sengadal the Dead Sea happens to be the only Tamil film chosen for Indian Panorama , 2011.

This people participatory film dealing Tamil fishermen issue will be presented at IFFI, Goa (Nov 23 to Dec 3) and will be travelling to all prestigious film festivals across the world as Indian Panorama Package.

And certainly, it is a moment to celebrate freedom of expression as the film had suffered the worst censorship struggles for several months, for its political critique until the Appellate Tribunal's intervention in July 2011. After winning its months-long legal battle with the Regional Central Board of Film Certification and the Appellate Tribunal Authorities over the ban on public exhibition, Sengadal the Dead Sea emerged with an "A" certification, without any cuts, on July 20, 2011. The film was then officially selected in the competition sections of 32nd Durban International Film Festival,  35th World Montreal Film festival, and in 13th International Mumbai Film Festival respectively. And it has won NAWFF Award at Tokyo as the best Asian Woman film of the year 2011. Ms. Navi Pillai, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, who watched the film at Durban appreciated the uncompromising voice of the film and took it as a witness of the human rights violations committed by the Sri Lankan Navy on the Indian Fishermen at the international maritime border off the shores of Rameswaram and Dhanushkodi. She has committed necessary intervention along with her UN Investigations on the genocide committed on Lankan Tamils by Sri Lankan Government.

Sengadal the Dead Sea is enacted by the real fishermen and refugees from Dhanushkodi and Rameshwaram Mandapam camp. All the supporting artistes are from Kidathirukai Therukoothu team and the film captures the fragments of their simple lives beaten by three decade long ethnic war in Sri Lanka. Produced by Tholpaavai Theatres, Sengadal the Dead Sea was one of the recipients of Production Grant by Global Film Initiative (GFI) for the year 2010.

Warmly

Sengadal team




வணக்கம்.


 2011 ம் ஆண்டிற்கான இந்தியன் பனோரமாவிற்கு, செங்கடல் திரைப்படம் ஒரே தகுதி பெற்ற தமிழ்ப்படமாகத் தேர்வாகியுள்ளது. கோவா சர்வதேச திரைப்பட விழாவில்(ந்வம்பர் 23 - டிசம்பர் 3) பெருமையுடன் பங்குபெறும் செங்கடல் தமிழ் மீனவர்களின் வாழ்க்கையை மக்களின் பங்களிப்பைக் கொண்டே உருவாக்கப்பட்ட திரைப்படம். 2011 ஆண்டு முழுவதும் உலகமெங்கிலும் நடைபெறும் முக்கியமான சர்வதேச திரைப்பட விழாக்களுக்கு இந்தியன் பனோரமாவின் சார்பாக பங்குபெறும் வாய்ப்பையும் செங்கடல் இதன் மூலம் பெறுகிறது.

பல மாத சட்டப் போராட்டத்திற்குப் பிறகு சென்ஸார் தடையிலிருந்து மீண்ட செங்கடலின் இந்த வெற்றி கருத்துச் சுதந்திரத்தில் அக்கறையுள்ளவர்களுக்கு பெரும் நம்பிக்கையை அளித்துள்ளது.  மத்திய தணிக்கைக் குழு செங்கடலை,  அதன் அரசியல் விமர்சனுங்களுக்காக பொது இடங்களில் திரையிட தடை விதித்திருந்தது. பலமாதகால சட்டப் போராட்டத்திற்குப் பின் எந்த வெட்டும் இல்லாமல்  மேல்முறையீட்டு ஆணையத்தின் தலையீட்டால் 'A ' சான்றிதழை ஜூலை 20-ல் பெற்றது. அதன் பிறகு, 32ஆவது டர்பன் (தென் ஆஃபிரிக்கா) சர்வதேச திரைப் பட விழாவிலும்,  35ஆவது மாண்ட்ரியல் (கனடா)  உலகத் திரைப்பட விழாவிலும்,  13 வது சர்வதேச மும்பை திரைப்பட விழாவிலும்  சர்வதேசப் போட்டிப் பிரிவில் தேர்வு பெற்று பங்கேற்றது. இந்த மாதம் டோக்கியோவில், சிறந்த ஆசியப் பெண் திரைப்படமாக  NAWFF விருது பெற்றுள்ளது . 

டர்பன் திரைப்படவிழாவில் செங்கடல் படத்தை பார்த்த ஐ. நா சபையின்  மனித உரிமை ஆணையாளர் திருமிகு. நவி பிள்ளை ”ராமேஸ்வரம் , தனுஷ்கோடி ஆகிய கடலோர எல்லைப் பகுதியில் இந்திய மீனவர்கள் மீது இலங்கை கடற்படையின் மனித உரிமை மீறலுக்கான ஒரு சாட்சியமாக ,சமரசமற்ற குரலாக செங்கடல் ஒலிக்கிறது” எனக் குறிப்பிட்டுள்ளார்.இலங்கை அரசின் தமிழினப்  படுகொலைகள் மீதான ஐ. நா சபையின் மனித உரிமை ஆணையத்தின்  விசாரணையோடு இந்திய மீனவர்களின் படுகொலை மீதான  தலையீட்டிற்கும் ஆவன செய்வதாகவும் உறுதியளித்தார்.

தனுஷ்கோடி மீனவர்களையும், மண்டபம்   அகதிகளையும் நடிகர்களாக கொண்டே செங்கடல் படமாக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது.  இந்திய இலங்கை எல்லைக்  கிராமமான, எப்போதும் வாழ்வும் மரணமும் கண்கட்டி விளையாடும்  தனுஷ்கோடியை, இலங்கையின்  முப்பதாண்டுகால இனப்போரால்  சிதறடிக்கப்பட்ட அதன் எளிய மக்களின் வாழ்வுக் கூறுகளை, மிக நுணுக்கமாக  கையாளுகிறது  இத்திரைப்படம் . தோல்பாவை தியேட்டர்ஸ்  தயாரிப்பான செங்கடல்,அமெரிக்காவின் க்ளோபல் பிலிம் இனிஷியேடிவின் (GFI) 2010 - ஆம் ஆண்டிற்கான தயாரிப்பு ஊக்குவிப்பு வெகுமதியையும் பெற்றுள்ளது. 
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நன்றி

செங்கடல் திரைப்படக் குழு

Saturday, October 22, 2011

மொழியறியாதவனுக்கான கவிதைகள்

நன்றி - தினகரன் தீபாவளி மலர், வள்ளிதாசன்


1.

உன்னோடான  முற்றுப் பெறாத உரையாடல்களால் ஆனது 
என் தெரு 
சொற்களை உடைத்தும், பெருக்கியும், 
பள்ளங்களை நிரப்பிக் கொண்டு 
நடக்கிறேன்

நிராசைகளை பேய்களுக்குத் தின்னத் தருகிறேன்.
பதிலுக்கு அவை எனக்கு கள் வடியும் பூக்களைப் பரிசளிக்கின்றன 
அதிலொன்றை உனக்கு சூட்டுகிறேன்.
அதில் என் அக்குளின் வாசம் இருப்பதாக சொல்கிறாய்

கைவிடப்பட்ட தேனடையாய் தொங்கும் பொழுதுகளை பருகுகிறோம்
நீரலை யாய் மோகம் 
தாழ்ந்த இசையைப் புனைகின்றது 
கலவியில் நீளும் நம் மெல்லிய உடல்களின் பித்தால்
திசை துலங்குகிறது 
மேலும் நடக்கிறேன்

ஒரு நெடுங்கனவு போல 
நாட்களின் நிறங்கள் கூடுகின்றன



2.

உன்னைத் தெரிந்துக் கொண்ட இரவுகள்
வௌவால்களை போல அறைகின்றன 

அவற்றுக்கு 
மீன்களைப் பிடித்து தருகிறேன்
கடல் வேண்டும் என்கின்றன 

பழங்களைப் பறித்துத் தருகிறேன்
காடு தா என்கின்றன 

குகைகளை பெயர்த்து தருகிறேன்
மூதாயை  அழைத்து வா என்கின்றன 

ராஜப் பூச்சிகளின் சிரசை தருகிறேன் 
சூனியத்தைப் பிடித்து தா என்கின்றன 

அதன் சுரப்பிகளில் பாலுண்ட என் கனவுகளுக்கு
கண்களை காவு தருகிறேன் 

அரக்கு நிற புகை கக்கி எரிகிறது தலை

லீனா மணிமேகலை

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

WHAT THE SEA SAW - A film on Tamil Fishermen comes ashore (Cover page article in EYE (Indian Express))


A still from the film Manimekalai
A still from the film Manimekalai

After a fight against censorship, Tamil filmmaker Leena Manimekalai is ready to showcase her film Sengadal, the story of a fishing community living on the fringes of India, at the upcoming Mumbai Film Festival.
It’s easy to find poetry in the landscape of Dhanushkodi — a fishing village located at the southern tip of Tamil Nadu’s Rameswaram island, surrounded as it is by vast stretches of sea. Easy, but presumptuous, considering how the fishing community of the village has had to bear the brunt of the three decade-long ethnic war in Sri Lanka, owing to its proximity to the island nation. It was this story of constant struggle against an idyllic natural landscape that appealed to Tamil filmmaker Leena Manimekalai, who captured it on celluloid over a year in 2009. The film, Sengadal (The Dead Sea), eventually became Manimekalai's first attempt at feature after nine documentaries, but the going was anything but smooth.
Earlier this year, the Chennai Regional Censor Board refused a clearance certificate to the film, which talks about the atrocities of the Sri Lankan army against the Indian Tamils. The board found political references to the governments of India and Sri Lanka objectionable. The use of cuss words by fishermen was another ground for stalling its release. “The film is based on factual accounts. Collected from the interviews of fisherfolk, it strings together memories of horrific incidents that affected these people,” says Manimekalai. “For these fishermen, who were often ignorant of boundaries, whether on land or at sea, venturing into the ocean was a necessity to generate livelihood.” On a number of occasions, they ended up dead at the hands of Sri Lankan navy personnel who disposed of the bodies in the Indian Ocean.
After the intervention of the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal following a petition filed by her, the Federation of Film Societies and several civil rights activists, Sengadal was re-examined by the censor board. On July 25 this year, it was cleared without any cuts but with an ‘A’ certification. Months after getting the adult stamp and making its international debut at Durban and Montreal film festivals, the 100-minute film is now ready for its Indian premiere. It will be screened at the week-long 13th Mumbai Film Festival (MFF), which will starts on October 13. “This is the film’s first official screening in India even though it was screened at alternate venues like Mumbai’s Prithvi Theatre earlier,” says the director.
Despite the hullabaloo, says the 33-year-old Chennai-based director, Sengadal is a film that was waiting to be shot. Manimekalai moved to Dhanushkodi with her camera and a small crew in February 2009, when the civil war in Sri Lanka was in its last stages. For the next four months, she shouldered the dual responsibility of directing the feature film as well as acting in it. “We adopted a participatory process during the making. The community was very involved. Several residents of Dhanushkodi also played out characters akin to their real life,” she says.
It was not easy initially to win their trust, but her frequent visits to the area slowly dissolved their reluctance. “The villagers became my extended family, helping me to get into the inner space of the community. I stayed and ate with them,” she says. Even when she overstayed beyond the permissible hour of 6 pm as decreed by the local naval post, they took care to hide her. “If a naval helicopter came out for surveillance when we were taking a boat ride, something we were not allowed to do, the fishermen quickly hid us under the deck,” she recollects. Thanks to such cooperation, she was able to shoot the film despite the constant vigil of coastal and navy personnel.
Training the villagers and making them act in this documentary-like feature was another challenge altogether. The director had no pre-determined narrative for the film. Initially, she worked without a script, accumulating the footage of the members of Dhanushkodi community talking about their perilous existence. “After I collected the raw material, I collaborated with writers C Jerrold and Shobasakhti to give it a formal structure,” she says. The film opens with Dhanushkodi waking up to two bodies washed ashore. This triggers a protest at the collector's office, demanding justice. “This incident had taken place in the 70s. But we chose to incorporate that in our narrative.” Manimekalai has taken similar creative liberties of blending fact and fiction. For instance, the character of a half-wit Lankan refugee Suri, who is glued to a radio, is inspired by the story of a refugee who led a similar life.
During the filming, Manimekalai became an integral part of the narrative. Along with the protagonists — Munusamy, the fisherman, and Rosemary, the fisherwoman who turns into a social worker after losing her husband in a Sri Lankan navy encounter, and Suri — she tries to make sense of the chaos and hardship prevailing in this tiny village. Their interactions with Lankan refugees, their skirmishes with the Indian and Sri Lankan officials and their personal lives overrun by external events, form the crux of this “factual feature”. As Manimekalai went about collecting information about life disrupted, a bigger story of political negligence emerged. However, what stood out was the community’s constant struggle to live and their ability to keep hope afloat.
There is an undeniable universality to the story of this small fishing community, caught in a conflict zone.“People who are caught in border land conflicts, like those on the US-Mexico border, will be able to identify with Sengadal’s story,” says Manimekalai. This could be one of the reasons why it made the cut at the MFF’s International Competition in the category of the First Feature Film of Directors despite facing competition from nearly 40 Indian films. “The selection committee was impressed with the freshness in approach, wonderful photography and the way non-actors have been treated in the movie,” says MFF director Srinivasan Narayanan.
Despite the appreciation, Sengadal will probably be screened only once, at the festival. “The movie should have proper screenings and be seen in theatres,” says fellow documentary filmmaker Anand Patwardhan. In fact, Manimekalai is already exploring the possibility of a commercial release. “When you make this kind of films, you have to show it to a wider audience,” she says. The director is now gearing to release the film locally. In the worst possible scenario, she is planning “a symbolic release” of the film in around 15 theatres. This may also ease the financial constraints she faced while making the film. After her first producer backed out, Global Films Initiative, a San Francisco-based organisation which promotes independent filmmakers, stepped in with a $10,000-grant. Later, producer Janaki Sivakumar helped her complete the project.
Manimekalai is, however, not new to the struggle. This engineering graduate, armed with a camera, a microphone and an editing software on her computer, found her true calling in making documentaries in 2001 when she made Mathamma. In it, the Left-leaning poet-cum-activist-turned-director talked about the prevailing custom of devoting girls to the deity in the Arundhatiyar community of Tamil Nadu. It was followed by Parai, which brings the violence against Dalit women to light. Her later films — Break the Shackles, Love Lost, Waves after Waves, Connecting Lines, A Hole in the Bucket and Goddesses — all capture the story of India that exists on the fringes.
Manimekalai has a couple of scripts ready, in collaboration with Shobasakthi, the author of the novel Gorilla. One of them focuses on the life of Tamil Muslims and is titled Fourth Caliba, while the other is titled Passport. The latter is a road film based on the life of a Sri Lankan Tamil youth caught between the government and the LTTE. “There is a constant fight between the artist and the activist in me. Maybe I am an 'artivist',” she says about her choice of subjects. In spite of that, she is reluctant to term her work as issue-based cinema. She chooses to call them “stories of living” instead.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

இசை


361 டிகிரி ( 2 )சிற்றிதழில் வெளிவந்த கவிதை







இந்த இரவில்
தன் சிவந்த தேமல்களை 
என்னிடம் முறையிடுகிறது நிலவு

இல்லை
அவை கள்ளிப்பழங்கள் எனப் பறித்து
நாக்கும் உதடும் சிவக்க சிவக்க 
மென்று காண்பிக்கிறேன்

இப்போது புத்தன்
தன் காதலியைத் தேடி வருகிறான்

அவள் பூப்படையாததற்கு 
இந்த நிலவு தான் காரணம் 
எனக் கோபிக்கிறான்

புத்தனுக்கொரு பாம்பு புற்றுக்கு  வழிகாட்டுகிறேன்

நான் உன்னைப்போல 
இரவல் ஒளியல்ல
என்று பழித்ததற்கு
என்னைக் கூறு போடுகிறது நிலவு

மின்மினிப் பூச்சியாகிறேன்

இரவில் பகலாகவும்
பகலில் இரவாகவும்
இடையில் புனைவாகவும்

தும்பி இதைப் பாடிச் செல்கிறது 



லீனா மணிமேகலை

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Kettle of Fish - a conversation about Sengadal with Nandhini for Time Out Mumbai

http://www.timeoutmumbai.net/film/film_details.asp?code=442&source=5






Hi. The first, rather obvious, question: Why the fictional format? And what did fiction allow you to do with the narrative, locations and characters you were dealing with that may not have been possible on a documentary form?  

There is always a fiction in reality and a reality in fiction. I wanted to try something and not to be trapped in some syntax.Rather than cutting and pasting the reality and getting lost in revisionism, I thought, I will trial this and trust me I am aware of situations where I may fail.Our three dimensional world is not as real as we think and to deal reality and still handling fictional elements is not a treachery and Art allows it.

Sengadal is a participatory work. I just facilitated everything and I will not claim authorship for that. Everything in the film is the memory of a Dhanushkodi fishermen or of a fisherwoman or a thought of a child or a  confession of a refugee or an incident a social worker had shared or an experience of a filmmaker herself or an interview of one of those Rameshwaram Public. I just beaded them or scattered them to a shape to what my mind responded in the whole process. In a sense, the film was a departure of memories, thoughts and confessions.Again, reducing life to a story line for better control is a No - No for me. I maybe tried to unfold the film as a space of inter relations and inter-stories.

As an artiste, I was limited in many ways like no money, no professional production support, no professional actors, constant intimidation by vigilance forces, harsh weather conditions and an impossibly difficult location. There was something which is driving me and I guess that is the fisherfolk's amazing ability to live a midst so much of violence.

The script evolved from series of my workshops with Dhanushkodi fishermen and Mandapam refugees. And I colloborated with my writers Jerrold and Shobasakthi to evolve something discreet with all my raw materials like monologues, interviews and my scrap books. It became something but nothing worked as written in the paper. What I learnt is in this kind of cinema, Mise en Cinema is not what the authors try and evolve but it is the community who dictate it. And the authorship becomes three dimensional with the artistes who facilitate the the community, the community itself and the viewers who convert memory as an experience. Sengadal is an unfinished cinema and it is always as parts and not as a whole anytime in its existence.
   
Sengadal enfolds a film within a film. Why did you choose the self-reflexive approach?  

I am always a sucker of this idea of artiste being an organic part of her piece of work. I am criticised to be self indulgent for this very aspect of my belief. And I also believed that the whole journey is as much a failure to the filmmaker as it is to the community he or she deals with. I was constantly interrogated by all kinds of forces like Q branch, Police, CB CID, Navymen, Railway Police, Coastal Guards and I was doing nothing but trying to document fishermen's life with a camera. The documentary filmmakers in this country are always seen as some terrorists with a bomb in their waist belt. I think I identified my travails with the travails of fishermen community though not on the level playing fields and I tried to somehow knot it up. 

I am this Witness - Confidante - Listener who is a trophy failure r. And I guess, it is also a reflection of my constant shuttling across thresholds of insideness and outsideness.
   
I remember an artist in Bombay saying that art was, in a sense, dead after the Godhra riots. Is there a sense, after the Sri Lankan massacre that filmmakers need a new language, perhaps, a new way of approaching the issue?  

I really have to confess to you that this question has made me think of two many things and go blank or get lost. But one has to always live with hope. Otherwise how can one carry on any kind of struggle? 

Whenever I am left to deal with different kinds of experiences and different kinds of humiliations in terms of degrees, marginalized people are going through,  I am always left with the feeling that I am doing no justice in terms of depicting it in cinema. When I think I should do a 'No Story' but still have fictional elements against reality principle or when I try and document lives without representation or when I use repetition as a technique for re inscription, I only fail at the end of process.

Mutilation of people's dignity takes many forms and however It seems to me that I were heading nowhere in my struggle as an artiste if we as a human race cant really cross the partition lines like geographical, cultural, racial, gender, generational and other such to create new alliances in reality.One is taken away from one's own land and reduced to slavery , One remains homeless in one's own land, one is dispossessed of one's very means of survival and all our notions of survival seems to be notion of everyday. We rise up to everyday and if and only we fight, we might have new Jerusalem. 

Social and Political conflicts, I wonder are easier to consume than aesthetics. So,Creative space for me depends on what we do "creatively" and there is no meaning in creative space without being ''social''. I try and approach from the notion of in between ness. Though I am not sure, my language makes any sense to anybody. Poetry or Cinema, language is my first enemy and that is the one which demoralizes me but still gives strength to fight with. I think, that is also part of our feminist struggles has for decades.

Do fisherfolk and refugees play themselves? Did you mix up professionals and amateurs? I’d like to talk to you about the process used.  

Casting was an outcome of my many visits in a duration of one year and workshops. But there were situations when whom you choose in workshops, give them a character and even practice dialogues never turn up at the day of shoot. I had to randomly pick and again train them from the scratch on the locations. Almost everyone in the Unit including the boys who helped us in tea were made to act and towards the end we ran out of people to cast for supporting roles.It was a night mare thinking about the shocks you get everyday you venture into shooting. Managing with refugees was the most challenging task for me as whom you find the first day disappear the next day and reasons can be, they have found a better wage job, or they were just visiting and did not want to lose that day's wage but had to return to their original camps or they just got an agent and left to Australia or they are just absconding.I had to forget my lessons about continuity in Cinema and it was always a crisis management or a paranoia or madness coming to terms with reality. Fishermen would leave us if it is low seas and they see a catch worth than acting in this stupid cinema where they were made to walk some ten times as retakes.And the rural public who did supporting characters would refuse to wear the same shirt out of boredom or disgrace.

I can go on and you will have a book written at the end. 

Saturday, September 3, 2011

‘My protagonists are like shamans’ - TEHELKA Interview

Published Version





My Written Version

How did your background of being born in a little village to a household of men who leaned towards
communism affect your world view?

I am still a tropical Kurinji(Mountain and mountain surrounded landscape) woman with a pagan spirit and who loves mangoes, toddy, lake fish, cattle, summer springs and kabadi. I have also done few years of schooling at a Corporation School in that little mountain village Maharajapuram at the slopes of Western ghats when my Late Father Prof. Raghupathy who was indeed a first graduate in my family history went to university for M.Phil research. My nostalgia is equally romantic and inquisitive about the whole social and geographical setup. Yes, all my family men for three generations held state level, national level position in Communist Parties. interestingly family feud is mostly setup with our men's ideological beliefs. My grandfathers were with the Communist Party of India and my uncles are even now with Marxist and Maoist Parties. As children, we suffered our friendships with our cousins because of our head men's ideological leanings and activities. We have faced elections with our own uncles contesting against each other and our voluntary work in the election propaganda always shadowed on each other. My mother, grandmothers and aunts ran families and farms while all men are out for some party work. I always get inspired from them and wondered they are born leaders. They would have been Rosa Luxembergs and Clara Zetkins if they were allowed to be active politically, I supposed. Their bedtime stories about how they protected the men and families during ban on communist parties in India, against the frequent Police raids and arrests never made me sleep. I owe them all my initial feminist quests on equality and self respect.

Geographically, my village is divulged on caste dwellings and the wage worker Dalits live in ghettos and the oppressor land lordly caste live in better streets.Though my family had a left leaning and is always seen as traitors among the community, we still lived in the caste streets and owned lands and married within and I felt ashamed even in my youth to be born culturally in the oppressor caste family. I was angry by the practice of untouchability and beliefs on pollution and purity when my mobility with my peer group friends was limited because of that. My sense of compassion and equality which I acquired through my early exposure to Russian literature and Periyar E.V Ramasamy's little books, and pamphlets of Ambedkar's speeches from my Grand Dad and Dad's library was constantly battered by my question on why I have been given a caste tag by birth which puts me superior to some and inferior to some. I detested the tags and my whole idea of atheism was born out of my hatred to religion particularly Hindusim. I still cant forget my childhood rebellion of entering my village temples when am menstruating and then announcing to my family if i will die because of that, I rather die and befriending and staying in my dalit friends homes and refuse to go back home. I believe, my commitment to larger battle against social injustices in my youth was largely shaped up by my village which is still doomed by caste and class inequalities and women suppression.

You were raised by your mother a single mom? What did that teach you about Indian women?

My mom was married to my father who is her maternal uncle when she was fourteen and she got widowed when she was just thirty nine. It was terrible to witness my mother's trials through my growing up days. She used to say that I was born to her when she dint even know how a baby comes out of a woman's body. I have heard her cursing my grand parents for dooming her to be a woman by marriage when she was playing kittipuli(village game) as a naughty child with village boys and jumping compounds of village touring talkies to watch Bharathiraja's films stealthily bunking classes. But she was mother of mother to her sisters and brothers and their children and her children  and made us graduate and stand on our own.She wanted me to learn everything what she missed in her life. She will devotedly take me to bharathanatiyam classes, karnatic music classes, sanskrit classes, playground, regular school classes all though the day and she would abuse me if I fail to be good at any of these curriculum, i would be a failure like her. It was hard for me a child but I understood her anxiety as I grew up. Being her mirror image of what she could not be was such a task to me but I guess i acquired my fighting ability from her and her bringing up. I did ask her to re marry when we lost our father but she refused to that and said she would be our father too from then on. All my existence today is because of her and her passion for life.

You also worked as a relief worker after the tsunami hit india. What were some of your realizations
during that period?

I would correct that I was not a relief worker but managed to so some work around that.Catastrophes will lead one to become something else and yes it did affect me and made me a spiritual being. As an offspring of Self Justice movement, I always thought everything can be understood and very well within explanations.But my experience with natural disaster did make me feel there can be something which cant be understood. My fear of loss and suffering which I had when I lost my father extended to whole humanity and lives.
I also felt, my cameras and pens lose their power before certain situations and I should use my hands to help rather. I also realized that I am not that brave and courageous, which I think am and I really have to grow up to handle larger than life situations and there are situations which can shake you up and leave in despair.
I did gather myself and did art therapy for children at the tsunami hit coastal belts and documented the workshops which really made the children deal with their fear,gain their confidence and go back to schools. My film on those workshops was screened across 58 coastal villages and helped relief workers involved in rehabilitation..

The censor board wanted some of your movies to have massive cuts. But you went ahead and released films independently, without those cuts. What is your take on censorship and why do you think absolute freedom of expression is needed?

Censor Board is a shame to our 'democracy'. Even after legally been transformed to a Certification Board in 80's it is impossible for the board to remove the scissors from their hands and spirits. Institutionally controlling a content and deciding what their "subjects" should see or think or hear or act is a colonial hangup and a fascist attitude.Our sixty years of democracy has not still done with Queen Victoria and our Babus still want to clean her graves with their loyalty. I cant take this humiliations at any cost as a free thinking artiste. In a way for me, practicing art is a form of detesting censorship of my 'being' by agencies like family, religion, caste, culture and identities, market and state. I have gone to people directly with my films and there was no single incident creating a law and order situation as the CBFC had always feared. Infact the films demanded intervention of the concerned.It was only with my direct dialogues with my films with the community, my social understanding evolved and I leant and unlearnt a lot. This whole participatory process and the dialoge involved has only strengthened me and I cant allow agencies like CBFC to limit me the possibilities of reaching films across.

Anybody who believes in free thinking will subscribe to absolute freedom of expression. And with my little experience, people are wiser enough to chose, reject, appreciate  and criticise what they want and if State thinks it has a role in controlling it, we need to remind it that it cannot and should not.

Your movie Goddess dealt with different dalit women taking on typical male roles in society – of gravedigger, fisherman, and in turn questioning them? Do you think you do that every day in your life – as a filmmaker who dares to question authority?

Lakshmi amma(Mourner and beef seller), Sethurakamma(fisherwomen) and krishna veni amma(grave digger) are shamans to me and I learnt from them how not to complain and fight our ways and live our choices so passionately. To continue to do what I believe in is so hard at our times and the extraordinary lust these women have for their lives made me feel so good about my own trials and challenges. I get very demoralised and disillussioned sometimes when I feel marginalised and socailly outcaste in my own terms and life, the lives I come across with my own films give me hope and courage. I think, I question and I live and I owe this quality of mine to people like these three goddesses.

You have said that an artist’s responsibility is to make society reflect on its own actions or issues.
But don’t you think sometimes artists may use that argument to incite. Or that such noble plans may backfire and incite sensitive parties

Yes, i agree, everything has its own repercussions.But is it not a natural justice that way? Everyone has a right to practice what they believe in and express themselves and artist with his or her own capability will deal it in their own terms.We we are born in a chronic unequal society and everything is so complex out here. I dont know about noble plans but even for simple plans, trial and error is the only way out for anyone to be different and still survive.

You talk about the fishermen’s ability to survive through violence and getting inspired by that. What did that teach you about life and how have you tried to bring that across in your movie. What are some of the main points you want to raise through Sengadal?

Basically fisher community are very compassionate. They are so humane to levels that they help refugees or rebels or any x , y or z who come to them and thus they invite problems every now and then with the State authorities. It was not difficult for them to love me like one among them. I was one listening ear to all of them but in the process, I felt powerless and helpless when I came across their horror stricken lives.I felt like one awful rat living so sophisticated in the plains. But their ability to live and the courage to set off their boats everyday though there is a 'Do or Die' situation overwhelmed me.I lived with them, and every fisher family at Dhanushkodi is my extended family. Their interviews, personal confessions and memories dug a deep hole in my heart and got etched in my sub conscious.I had no other go than sharing my experience somehow with the rest of the world. And that is how Sengadal the Dead Sea happened.



Almost every household in Dhanushkodi, the border coast has a story of their men shot randomly by the Sri Lankan Navy in the sliver of water between India and Sri Lanka. Fishermen fishing in fear in ignorance of friendly and enemy waters get dumped as rebels, spies and smugglers and unceremoniously beaten to death or shot or maimed.One can see a widow or orphaned children or parents who have lost their son or siblings who have lost their brother in every other family. Unnoticed, the Palk Strait has become the scene of inhuman torture, humiliation and savage murder over the past 30 years since the ethnic crisis had become severe in Srilanka. And in the past six months, the violence has been accelerating — hundreds of  men have been killed. Nearly 600 have lost their lives till now, more than thousands are injured and  have gone missing. And everyday, these figures are raising. And this is not even war.


There were instances where fishermen have been stripped off their clothes and their legs have been heated up with hot rods.They have  been beaten  up using plastic pipes and clubs and they have scars to show us.Horrible physical abuses like making them to sit on ice and looting their fishes have taken place as well.Besides there has been numerous situations where they have been taken into custody and tortured,physically and verbally abused.Tearing their nets and damaging their boats have often been done by the navy. Fishermen in general are socially oppressed and economically downtrodden people and hence these acts are nothing less than strangulating them.Questions do raise in one’s mind about the racist nature of these attacks.

To fishermen, maritime boundaries are man made creations.  Throughout centuries, they have been fishing in all areas, where there is fish.  It is a universal phenomenon.   The Sri Lankan fishermen enter Indian and Maldivian waters. Indian fishermen enter Pakistani waters and Bangladeshis enter Myanmar and the Japanese and Taiwanese trawlers roam around the whole of Asian waters.  The restrictions imposed by the States on cross border movements of the fisher folk have led to loss of human lives and destruction of fishing crafts.                


States are interested in borders, boundaries, bilateral relations and Fishermen are interested in their means of livelihood and thus the issue is conflict of interests and loss and suffering of the powerless.


Dead Sea, for sure will voice their concerns expose how abysmally small their lives are and how every other institutions of Power oppress them. All they ask is their basic rights to live and it is not too much at all. As a fellow being, let us all intervene in our own way to keep the discourse alive until there is some collective action.

You have alleged that the Indian government helped in the elam tamil genocide. How do you explain that?


India is been always a big brother to its neighboring countries. India is the one that nurtured Tamil weapon movements in Srilanka and also made them lose the war and their cause at the end of three gruesome decades of loss and suffering. Srilankan War Crimes are now exposed in the international media and there is an outcry for a trial on the excesses committed by the government in the International Court of Justice and Law. Recent UN reports clearly states that the SL government has conducted genocide. As Indians we should be ashamed of our governments who given alms, arms and every other support to Rajapakshe and be a kingpin to perform this genocide. Rajapakshe has himself given an open statement that he had conducted India's war.

Srilankan Tamils are the community in their fight for their right to self determination who have lost thousands of lives so brutally to the hands of State and Revolution. Srilankan Tamils had to constantly negotiate with the dominant Sinhala State of Srilanka and the rigid control of community exercised by Tamil militant organization Liberation of Tigers of Tamil Ealam (Ealam is the imagined Tamil State fought for by the militants)whose extremist and militarist stances have created a culture of fear and anxiety among the Tamil Polity. This has led to migration of hundreds and thousands of people fleeing across the coasts as refugees to India and other countries. 

The misery spells over the Indian shores and the fishermen in the coastal borders suffer their very right to profess their traditional fishing rights. They speak the same language as the ethnic minorities in Srilanka and the racist Srilankan Navy kill them in the name of "Border Crossing".

It is the Nations and States and Constitutions and Boundaries and Border Forces which are violating fisher community's very basic right to live. What both Indian and Srilankan States do to fishermen is State Terrorism. Nearly 600 have have lost their lives till now, and more than thousands are injured and have gone missing leaving their family in the lurch. Who is responsible for that? Is it the racist Srilankan Governments? or the impotent Indian and Tamilnadu governments? Sengadal is the vent for the fishermen's anger and I join them hands.