JAY JOSHI
Bringing an honour to the Goan film fraternity, young Marathi non-feature film Kharvas directed by Ponda-based filmmaker Aditya Jambhale has been selected as the opening non-feature film of Indian panorama for IFFI 2018. The film is named after a Goan sweet dish, but touches upon a sensitive topic.
“The film chronicles the emotional journey of a mother who has lost her child,” informs Aditya. “The film has been inspired by true events. A certain interpretation of the concept of motherhood is at the centre of the film, and it shows the unexpected turns life can sometimes take.” The story has two layers and it seeks to examine how the Indian society responds to such situations. “On one side, the mother has to rise from the shock of loss, and on the other, the society is trying to make her cover up the loss and put on a brave face. In this case, she must also rise against such attempts by the society; against the perceptions that people are creating around her. She is fighting on two fronts, and to what extent she go to cope up with the situation, is what forms the crux of the story,” explains the director.
According to Jambhale, the Indian society at times tries to hide major problems rather than address them head on, and this happens more in case of problems of women. The film is an attempt to bring some of these issues to the fore so that they can be openly debated upon. “ The film does not solely focus on women’s issues per say. The core argument of the story is that we must openly talk about and resolve issues that are sensitive,” Jambhale avers. Kharvas was shot in five days and has not yet been screened on any major social media platforms.
Director Jambhale has also been the recipient of national award for his film Aba Aiktai na? (Grandfather, are you listening?), and he states that the key to a good film is that along with a good story, it also has to be technically sound. His own engineering background has been tremendously helpful in that regard, says Jambhale. “I do not think I made a paradigm shift by coming to filmmaking from engineering. In fact, I think filmmaking uses engineering more than most other fields, so in a way I am still in the same field.”
Lastly, if Kharvas is a film dealing with emotional trauma for a mother, then why name it after a sweet dish, is a question that will be answered only when you watch the film, says Jambhale.
