“Whether we see our wives or not, we see a dead body everyday,” complains a policeman inspecting the body of a fisherman who has been shot at sea by the Sri Lankan Navy. That one line in Leena Manimekalai film ‘Sengadal’ or ‘The Dead Sea’ - the only Indian film in International Competition in the ongoing Mumbai Film Festival, seems to sum up not just this movie, but Indian films in general.
Whether you see good cinema in India or not you invariably get to see tactless blockbusters every Friday, could be a common complain of any cinema fan in India.
The Dead Sea is metaphorical and allegorical.
And nowhere is this metaphoric example more evident than in Leena’s film, which from many perspectives, like technical aspects and even scripting may not be one that is up there, but there is no denying that this is an important film that needed to be made.
“60% of the film was illegally shot. We had to resort to guerilla style of filmmaking to finish it,” Leena told IANS.
‘The Dead Sea’ is a tale of oppression of a people. First of all the Sri Lankan Tamils, to avoid rape, hunger and death from the Sri Lankan authorities, smuggle themselves towards the Indian side, only to face persecution here.
Secondly the fishermen community of Rameshwaram who venture out to see are blatantly shot, beaten and in a few cases have even been sodomised by the Sri Lankan Navy for no apparent reason. They also do not get much support from the apathetic Indian authorities. With over 600 dead or missing fishermen, it is an extreme example of living in the fringes. When you consider that this happens in the ‘world’s largest democracy’, you realize justice and freedom need not be synonymous to democracy.
Leena wanted to show an honest story. Hence you have real people almost playing themselves and their lives to the ‘T’. The result is a film that may be far from cinematic accomplishment, but the one accusation that cannot be levied on it is of being dishonest. If you were to see footages of film stars, you’d obviously want them in HD. Yet on the same TV, you don’t mind the grainy images of a terrible atrocity that makes breaking news. In that light ‘The Dead Sea’, that gives voice to the most marginalized of the marginalized lot, becomes an extremely important film.
In an ideal world, Leena's film would have enjoyed better resources. But neither has the film been made in an ideal world, nor is Indian cinema in a ideal state of existence with most film made and released with only commercial intentions in mind.
Yet, this years Mumbai Film Festival provides an interesting contrast and an example of where Indian cinema is headed. 15% films in the festival are Indian. They have been put in three sections: ‘Indian Frame’, ‘New Faces In Indian Cinema’ and ‘Film India Worldwide’. The range of films in these sections reflects the variety of films and creative that are making films in the country which sadly, like the fishermen in the film, lie on the fringes of Bollywood.
Despite receiving rave reviews from festival viewers, the fate of most of these films, are doubtful, just like the fishermen in ‘The Dead Sea’. “The fishermen of this community on which this film is based, is facing extinction,” says Leena. Hope the same is not the fate of Indian independent films and filmmakers.
This feature has been written for the wire service, IANS (Indo-Asian News Service).
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