Interview with Bramma, Director of Kuttram Kadithal – Part 2

Q. After the phenomenal critical appreciation for Kuttram Kadithal, the first question that needs to be asked is “Where did you come from? We could not find anything on you in the Internet!”

Ha ha! Yes, I haven’t assisted anybody and I am not very familiar with Cinema. But the Love towards Arts was in me from very early in my life. I wanted to study English Literature in College while my Father wanted me to do Engineering. I ended up doing something in-between – Physics at the famed Loyola College. It is here that I came to know about South Zone Culturals – An Inter University contest which had 3 categories Mime, Skit & One-Act-Plays. I was completely lured by the event which was a true celebration of Arts. My friends & I participated in all 3 categories, but the First time was an almighty flop. That defeat inspired us to try harder and our fervent practice for the next helped us win the South Zone through the play Public Nuisance which led us to qualify for the National Level, where again we prevailed on top. The next year, I wrote & directed a skit called Darkness based on Religious Conflict at Tirupathi which was Disqualified due to its violent content (we used goat intestines on stage to show the goriness :P). We improved on it the next year; won the South Zone again, qualifying for the Nationals to be held at Varanasi. We faced tremendous opposition there too as the core was Inter-Religious conflict but still managed to get third place & be called ‘National Champions’ (All 3 places are given this label). Even our skits & one-act plays that did not win anything were still talked about for the content & execution.

Q. Let me interrupt you right there, B.Sc Physics means a Three Year long course but how come you seem to have been doing this for many years?

Good spot! I had some arrears to clear during which time I continued to indulge in theatre. In fact I have been doing Theatre wherever I was & whatever I was doing. While I performed in my First Year, I then switched to Writing/Directing from the Second year as the rule mandated a Student of the college to perform. More than this reason, I found my true calling in Writing & Direction rather than acting. While most of my team members were outstanding performers I was the sole writer & the narrator. For instance, while I did my MBA in Crescent Engineering College at Vandalur, I was still doing theatre in parallel. We did a play as part of Women Police Training programme in Ashok Nagar to highlight the problems faced by Women in the Police force. We were commissioned to do this by Thilakavathy IPS and we did this for once a week for 52 weeks. I used to travel from Vandalur to Ashok Nagar by bus just for this play!

Vidyaprakash – One of my team mates- & I formed a Company called Proscenium Theatre & Creative Solutions. Theatre campaigns for NGOs, Corporate Theatre (Taj was an important client), training college & schools in Theatre/Drama was in our portfolio. In hindsight however, I am not very proud of doing such trainings as I believe Art should never be trained, rather it needs to be explored by the self. In the current rat-race, people call folks like us to get trained so that they can be successful in a Street Theatre or Stage Play competition. I then progressed on to directing Public Shows & even adapted many literary works as stage plays. For instance, I did an adaptation of Troy as a play called Agneeshwar, where the lead was a friend who has played a little but noticeable character in Kuttram Kadithal.

Q. More on your enticing Journey?

I came out of that after some time and joined Tamilnadu AIDS Control Society (TANSACS), as Regional manager in 2005 with the Red Ribbon clubs of all colleges & schools in the city coming under my purview. This allowed me to visit almost all the colleges in my Zone and interact with the youngsters. By 2009 I came out of this as I generally do not stay at a place for more than 3 years. I joined Apollo Health Resources & worked there for a few months during which my marriage got fixed. I then joined as a Project Head at the Nalanda Way foundation, an NGO, which aimed at imparting life skills through art. I visited almost all the Juvenile homes in the state as part of my work there. I was also sent to Kashmir & Bihar as a social worker staying for 4 to 5 months. I used to be a programmer (not the software type :P) interacting with the children there who have been rescued from Child labour. My interactions centered on preparing them and working with them to create stage plays & skits thereby creating a platform for the unheard voices. In essence, writing & directing at least a couple of plays per year satisfied my passion for arts. During my work at Nalanda, I was exposed to Short Films. Pavel (who had played the character of Udayan in Kuttram Kadithal) was my Junior at Loyola was into writing, acting & directing them as well. In fact his short films have won many awards at various festivals. Pavel is very close to me and has been cast in most of my theater works. A prolific movie-watcher, he too has aspirations to write & direct films and is currently working on his script. My exposure to various strata of society has given me tons of things to talk about & express to a larger audience. I planned to take the first step through Public Service Announcements (PSAs). My first was a PSA called Just Vote to inspire the youth to Vote, which was received very well. Even that was produced by my friend, Christy Siluvappan who also produced Kuttram Kadithal.

Q. Which Indian directors would you call to be an Inspiration for you?

Maniratnam, Bala & Anurag Kashyap. In fact, knowingly or unknowingly I must have traces of their style in my films, but I believe I can still be original.

Creativity in itself is an Imitation at a conscious & a subconscious level. As long as it remains subconscious you can feel very proud as a creator.

Q. Favorite films of yours?

• Karagatakaaran
• Michael Madhana Kama Rajan
• Baraan
• Krzysztof Kieslowski’s RED
• Paradesi
• Nayagan
• Onbadhu Roobai Nottu
• Gulaal
• Black Friday
• Water (one film that Hooked me to make movies. More so the Screenplay was by Anurag Kashyap!)
• 1947: Earth

I am a fan of non-fiction books. Some favourites on top of my mind are Tuesdays with Morrie, What You’ll Never learn on the Internet, and Writings of Gnani Sankaran.

Coming to fiction, a special mention to the first book in the series The Immortals of Meluha. Of course, while I like the content, I believe it is a politicizing of mythology in the current Indian scenario.

I really love doing interpretations of literary epics because you have the story & a plethora of characters on hand. You just have to let your imagination run wild around them to create an engaging screenplay. I would love to make a film like that someday.

With the tremendous growth in technology over each passing day, we are not far away from having a Direct-to-Mobile release let alone DTH. However, there will always be a group who are adamant about seeing moves in theatres since it is a place to gather as Friends or Family i.e. the visit is an event by itself irrespective of the quality of the film. The quality of the film helps in spreading word-of-mouth & repeat audiences. But this bunch will certainly watch it in theatres. Sadly they are not the majority. While Cinema is a topic of discussion or a passion for some like you & me, we cannot expect it to be the same for a normal consumer who will most certainly resort to watching it off Torrents or Live streams at home given the experience that a home theatre can provide. Leave Cinema, the concept of Socializing & mingling is in the path of becoming extinct. We are starting to enjoy everything only when we see it on a screen rather than by our own senses. We get excited while seeing a photo but not by just watching nature. Our mouth waters to see that cheese flowing thread-by-thread from the Pizza more so when we have the actual food on hand. The concept & origin of the very word, ‘Selfie’ can be attributed to this. Coming back to your question, yes things do look bleak but we have to hope that we will pull more people to theatres by enriching the content & the sound experience as that is the only power we as creators hold.

Hands down, the choice would be for Live Sound, for, it enriches the film & the emotions so much. While it is difficult to get the sound design live, it is undeniably worth the effort. We have used Live Sound for Kuttram Kadithal & I request everyone to watch it in Dolby Atmos to experience the fruits of the work that has gone behind creating this sound.

To be frank, I was not aware that you could do a festival-specific cut for a movie since I haven’t been exposed to Film Festivals before. So the answer to your question is that there is just a Single cut. But I can let out one secret now. I had imagined the climax to be open-ended when I conceived the script. The final scene would have been the boy being taken into the operation theatre. My reason for ending the film that way was that regardless of how the film is received at the Box-office, I wanted to stimulate debates & discussions. However, later a lot of my friends & well-wishers suggested the present climax. Directors whom I respect & almost all of normal people who have seen the film loved the current ending. So, I was fine that my personal wish had to make way.

Common question was how I was able to make such a convincing film given that this was my first. I am unable to remember any favorite question but I loved a particular comment which was in my mind when I was starting to script the film. More so because, it is not something very obvious but it was able to reach the National Awards Jury who mentioned it in their note about the film.

For the pervasive empathy with which it examines the guilt and the anger that follows upon a school teacher’s impulsive slapping of a student.

Why empathy is because I am someone who has been involved in teaching life skills & the word is very close to my heart. In fact, WHO tell us about 10 Life Skills of which Empathy is the first one!

I had actually written the one-liner thinking I would never show the child at all. But then, decided against it and casted one as it would have looked very experimental otherwise. There is no specific reason for it; just that I never felt he was required to speak more.

Q. How did you choose him in the first place?

He is actually a kid I spotted when I was working in Juvenile homes. When I was involved in doing plays at these homes, he was this very puny kid who used to perform very well on stage following my instructions to the T. Also, I saw something peculiar in him & something very cute as well which was necessary for the character. You can say the he is a kid that one cannot ridicule.

Always Rehearsals! One of the prime reasons being Economics. There are so many people involved in a film shoot that time is always of the essence. While there are specific scenes that might require spontaneity, having rehearsals & preparing the cast ahead is the way to go.

It depends on the genre of the film.

I would compute the space that they occupy on screen & depending on the scene, I would decide how much of time he/she would stay in scope. I then make sure that the sound in the background is extremely feeble. The character’s voice should be given prominence & the context in which the character comes in should be apt.

The script is first. It is paramount for a good film!

Sound design. Sadly, in India, there is very less attention being given to this aspect. There is a specific art in placing silence or noise in the course of a scene. I reckon if we set the ambience correctly, the audience will start investing in the drama on screen almost involuntarily. I picked up the importance of sound due to my theatre journey particularly in Miming. ‘Mime’ Gopi & I used to spend hours perfecting the sound cuts for our acts.

Currently, given a chance, there are many who want to associate themselves with Cinema – be it as a singer, writer, actor, director, musician etc. I am one of those lucky ones who got the chance to express myself. But what matters even more than the chance is the choice. The choice of what type of role you want to act in, what type of song you want to sing, what kind of music you want to compose & what type of film you want to make.

[Part 1 can be found here.]

It was wonderful talking with you, Bramma. Our best wishes that Kuttram Kadithal is celebrated by the audience. Looking forward to your next film!