Last saturday I got an opportunity to watch a critically acclaimed tulu movie ‘Suddha’ (Sudhda means cleansing rites) directed by Ramchandra PN in a special screening in the city. I heard about this movie a year back when it recieved the best Film award in the Indian Competition Section at the Osian’s Cinefan Festival of Asian Films held in New Delhi in 2006. That competition had also featured the veteran film maker Girish Kasaravalli’s film ‘Naayi Neralu’ – the screen adaptation of a novel by the same name -
Before coming to the film itself, I would like to say few points about Tulu movies. The production of Tulu movies started some 35 years back and the number of Tulu movies produced are very few. There were very good responses to the initial films. Because of the language barrier, film making in this area could not develop in to a full fledged industry. There are many reasons for that. Most of the tulu movies simply copied the formulas of Kannada films. The producers were not confident of getting their money back from Tulu films. Tulu is spoken by the people in and around Mangalore and the people of this region are very much obsessed with the Bollywood films and they seldom go out to watch a kannada film let alone watching a tulu film (if at all they manage to get released). Besides the fact that Tulu is one of my favourite languages, I didnt have any expectations from tulu movies. I always felt that Tulu movies (or any other regional movies for that matter) simply follow a template which is ususally spiced with action, melodrama, song and dance; and end up giving nothing substantial. My perception was proved wrong when I watched this brilliant movie.
This movie is shot in a digital 3 CCD camera and has been filmed without any use of artificial lights which makes it a low-budget movie. ‘Sudhda’ is the story of a rural family set in South Canara, which sees the conflict of relationship and responsibilities in a society which is on the verge of coming out of the feudal system.
‘Gutthuda ill’ (landlord’s house) used to be a very powerful house in the village with acres of land, hundreds of servants and an authority to rule the village in its hands. The landlord has two sons. One works in the fields and the other lives in Bombay. When mother dies, her son who is in Bombay is called to the house. When he arrives with his wife, he slowly witnesses the hollowness of the power that his house used to enjoy once. Most of the land they owned had gone into the hands of the lower caste people who once used to work in the landlord’s field. They were given land by the government policy to end feudal sysytem. Because of this, the financial state of the house has declined drastically making it difficult even to earn their daily bread. The elder son is unhappy with his son who is a college drop-out and there is always a tension between them. The Bombay returned man is eager to finish the cleansing rites and push off to Bombay forever. As the film moves we find that the elder son has an illegitimate relation with a lower caste woman, which is the reason why his son always has heated arguments with that family.
As the day of the holy ritual arrives, these two brothers realise that they dont have enough money for the cleansing rites. The elder son asks for his brother’s help and learns he also doen’t have a single penny. The landlord offers to sell his wife’s golden jewellary. Which hits the egos of two sons who later readily give their golden jewelleries. But suddenly they think that by selling a peice of their land they can get over with all their financial problems and they decide to do so.
In the whole process we see the feudal system dying. The main charecter of landlored is the personification of old customs. He is being regarded as the landlord, eventhough he has lost all his powers on the people. System might have changed, but the people are not accepting the facts. When they realise the changes, it hurts them and leaves them with only one option of leaving the village. The two sons, the grand son and the grand daughter of the landlored are all fed up with the the neverending village life. Bombay seems as a ray of hope for all of them. The climax of the movie is very special and makes it a niche ending leaving the audience think about the whole film for long time.
There are very special techniques used in this movie which are pathbreaking as far as this region’s cinema is concerned. Especially back ground sound. The film uses the chirping of birds, flowing water and folklore-like songs extensively as its outdoor sound and ticking sound of clock for the indoor sound. The ticking sound of clock and a frequent presence of radio songs, successfully create a calm village house environment. The cinematography , by depicting the mud walls, wooden carvings of windows and doors and the lush greenery of the village helps to take this film to a next level. The way the DoP has used natural lights and reflectors is very brilliant. The dark rooms of old house looks very realistic; so does the green fields. Having worked with a 3 CCD camera myself, I know the limitations of it. With that I must say that the DoP has given a very satisfactory job. Editing of the film should be mentioned here. The beautiful way of overlapping the sound of previous scene with the next scene is adopted through out th film. Some points it may look absurd but overall this technique was very well used.
All the actors have given decent performances. There are some points where you may feel that dialoge delivery is more like a stage performance. But at some points the actors have given a professional artists’ work.
Having won the best film award in an international platform, this movie gives an inspiration to all the independent film makers of our country to make good cinema. This movie once again shows that ‘potrayal of reality’ is what film making is all about and cinematic excellence can only be achieved with these type of movies and definitely not by ‘make believe’ or ‘larger than life’ type of films.
