Mahaantam Degree Document

DEGREE PROJECT
Mahaantam
Sponsor : Self Sponsored
Volume : 1
STUDENT : SHRIDHAR SUDHIR
PROGRAMME : Masters of Design (M. Des)
GUIDE : ARUN GUPTA
2017
COMMUNICATION DESIGN FACULTY (FILM AND VIDEO COMMUNICATION)
National Institute of Design

Ahmedabad
The Evaluation Jury recommends SHRIDHAR SUDHIR for the
Degree of the National Institute of Design

IN COMMUNICATION DESIGN (FILM AND VIDEO COMMUNICATION)
herewith, for the project titled "MAHAANTAM"
on fulfilling the further requirements by*
Chairman
Members :
Jury Grade :
*Subsequent remarks regarding fulfilling the requirements :
Activity Chairperson, Education

Copyright © 2016 - 2017
Student document publication meant for private
circulation only. All rights reserved.
Masters of design, Film and Video Communication, 2014 - 2017

National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, India.
No part of this document will be reproduced or

transmitted in any form or by any means including
photocopying, xerography, photography and videography
recording without written permission from the publisher,
Shridhar Sudhir and National Institute of Design.
All the illustrations and photographs in this document

are Copyright ©2016 - 2017 by respective people and
organizations.
Edited and designed by :

Shridhar Sudhir
shridhar.sudhir@gmail.com
Processed at :
National Institute of Design,
Paldi,Ahmedabad 380007
Gujrat,India.
www.nid.edu
Printed Digitally in Ahmedabad, India
4 SHRIDHAR SUDHIR / M. DES. / FILM AND VIDEO COMMUNICATION

Originality Statement
I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and it contains no full or substantial copy of previously published material, or it does not
even contain substantial proportions of material which have been accepted for the award of any other degree or ﬁnal graduation of any other
educational institution, except where due acknowledgement is made in this graduation project. Moreover I also declare that none of the
concepts are borrowed or copied without due acknowledgement. I further declare that the intellectual content of this graduation project is the
product of my own work, except to the extent that assistance from others in the project’s design and conception or in style, presentation and
linguistic expression is acknowledged. This graduation project (or part of it) was not and will not be submitted as assessed work in any other
academic course.
Student Name in Full: Shridhar Sudhir
Signature: __________________________________________________________________
Date:_______________________________________________________________________
Copyright Statement
I hereby grant the National Institute of Design the right to archive and to make available my graduation project/thesis/dissertation in whole
or in part in the Institutes Knowledge Management Centre in all forms of media, now or hereafter known, subject to the provisions of the
Copyright Act. I have either used no substantial portions of copyright material in my document or I have obtained permission to use copyright
material.
Student Name in Full: Shridhar Sudhir
Signature:___________________________________________________________________
Date:_______________________________________________________________________
GRADUATION PROJECT / MAHAANTAM 5

MAHAANTAM
Synopsis
The film follows the life of Gauri, a 7 year old girl, over four days, where
a small, insignificant incident at her school gives rise to a series of
events which lead to a grave end. It is her first glimpse into the ugly
side of nationalism, a concept she is not able to comprehend in its
entirety, but which makes a lasting impression on her young mind.

Credits
Directed, shot and edited by Music Supervisor Colony Residents Drawings

Shridhar Sudhir Bindhumalini Ashok Kumar Gayatri Kumari
Rajkishore Tejas Kumar
Guide Production Head Ramesh Kumar
Arun Gupta Akkta Panwar Naresh Kumar Subtitles
Rhea Mathews
Executive Producers Production Assistant Ruffians Anubha Jain
Sarita Prasad Pooja Vasu Chandan Kumar
Akshat Prasad Sahil Nigam Sunny Kumar Special Thanks
Subodh Prasad Suraj Kumar
Kumkum Prasad Location Location Courtesy Shilpa Das
Sarita Prasad Dr. Neena Kumar Prahlad Gopakumar
Script and Screenplay Saroj Kr. Verma Director, New Era Public School, Dr Hemant Kumar Verma
Shridhar Sudhir Bihita Sarita Prasad
Graphics Saroj Verma
Assistant Director Pooja Vasu Dr. Madhuri Dwivedi Subhashini Shriya
Rhea Mathews Principal, Patna Collegiate School, Shubhendu Parida
Cast Patna Shambhu Paswan
Sound Recordist Gauri : Ayushi Prakash
Vishnu Vardhan Babu Ponna Aditya : Aditya Prakash G. K. Pillai Documentation Design Guide
Shambhit : Mukesh Kumar Proctor, Patna University Pooja Vasu
Sound Design and Mastering Aravind : Vinay Kumar
A Bhaskar Rao Archana : Rekha Singh Food and Logistics
Shridhar Sudhir Sinhaji : Abhishek Sharma Rashida Khatoon
Gauri’s Friend : Tejas Kumar Ganesh Kumar
Music Peon : Deepak Prakash Deepak Prakash
M S Krsna Police Constable : Ganesh Kumar Surendra Barik
Head Girl : Aditi Abhavya
Banjo Radio News
Vedanth Bharadwaj Written by Subhashini Shriya
Voiced by Saroj Kr Verma

Content
Introduction 01 Conceptualization 02 Pre-Production 03

1.1 About NID 16-17 2.1 Returning to Nationalism 24-25 3.1 Film Language and treatment 46-47
1.2 Why make a film? 18 Why Nationalism? Form of the film
1.3 What kind of film? 19 Limitations of a documentary Invisibility of camera and audience
1.4 The idea of social context 20 The idea of a trilogy Symmetry of Compositions
1.5 The dilemma of a political film 21 2.2 The initial plot 26-29 Sturdiness of the Tripod
The gender question Using the weather
2.3 The Characters 30-31 3.2 The setting of the film : Bihar 48
2.4 The Script 32-43 The uniqueness of the Bihari setting
3.3 Casting 49
3.4 Locations 50
3.5 Workshop with school students 51
3.6 The drawing 52

Production 04 Post-Production 05 Conclusion 06
4.1 Equipment Used 56 5.1 Editing 62 6.1 Acknowledgement 68
4.2 Crew 56 Removing Kid’s Playing Scene 6.2 Learnings 69
4.3 Shoot Schedule 57 Writing radio News The Mic failure
4.4 Production Stills 58-59 5.2 Music 63-65 The generator mistake
Music script The idea of time
Working with music 6.3 Musings on a Graduation Project 70


“Clever lies become matters of self-congratulation.
Solemn pledges become a farce—laughable for their
very solemnity. The Nation, with all its paraphernalia
of power and prosperity, its flags and pious hymns, its
blasphemous prayers in the churches, and the literary
mock thunders of its patriotic bragging, cannot hide the
fact that the Nation is the greatest evil for the Nation,
that all its precautions are against it, and any new birth
of its fellow in the world is always followed in its mind
by the dread of a new peril.”
Rabindranath Tagore
Introduction
1.1 About NID 16-17
1.2 Why make a film? 18
1.3 What kind of film? 19
1.4 The idea of social context 20
1.5 The dilemma of a political film 21

The NID that I met.

1.1 About NID
The establishment of NID was a result of several forces, both It is important hence to know which NID you have met,
global and local. The late 1950s saw a confluence of these because that is the NID no one else would know. It is in part
forces, and this time would be a significant one for Indian romantic, and for most parts disorienting.
culture and education.
I personally love the idea of this institution. It’s foundation
Based on the recommendations made in the India Report, lies in a time where the world, and especially a young nation,
the Government of India with the assistance of the Ford was looking at the ideas of progress, of society and of design
Foundation and the Sarabhai family established the very positively, and which somehow appeals to me. As a
National Institute of Industrial Design, as it was originally student my relationship with the NID I met has been in parts
called as an autonomous all-India body in September trying to fit into this space, trying to figure out my place in
1961 at Ahmedabad. Gautam Sarabhai and his sister Gira this narrative, trying to contextualize the institution, with it’s
were played a major role in the establishment and early history and contemporary status, into the greater scheme
years of NID. Gautam Sarabhai sidestepped the accepted of things like society and the idea of India, and trying to
wisdom and conventional method of education . He revived come to terms with the idea of leaving the space after trying
the philosophy of the Bauhaus design movement which everything. This document is an endeavour for the latter.
propounded ‘learning by doing’ as its underlying principal.
But I believe NID today has come a long way from that idea,
in more ways than one. Some arguably good, some arguably It is important to know which NID you have met,
not-so-good. What I feel is more important and definitely because that is the NID no one else would know.
more relevant is the vantage point of oneself. NID as a space,
I have learnt, depends on you and what time you met it in.
The NID I met is not the same, in essence, to the NID of the
90s, or the 80s, or even to the batch right before me; not just
because of the change of era or time or people (all of that
obviously are a part of it), but because of a combination of
all of those factors juxtaposed with the same, ever-slightly-
changing ‘institution’. Whether it be returning back after a
summer break to find a new canteen, or finding a preview
room missing, NID changes itself regardless of you and your
relation to itself.
1.2 Why make a film?
The Graduation Film at NID gives you a lot to think about. It the experimental approach at play, but not in terms of form
is a junction where you are moving out of the comfort and and film language, but in terms of content, on which I will
shielded space, both physical and creative, of an institute. reflect later on.
The graduation project is seen as the culmination of all that
we have learnt thus far, and needs to be of a kind which
will add to your portfolio and will help secure jobs in the
outside world. This creates a dilemma by itself. It becomes
perhaps the last opportunity to experiment with the
medium and the form, or be self-indulgent in the content
without fear of client/producer intervention, but this also
increases chances of failure which, although an opportunity
to learn further, leaves you at this brink with a film which
might not be polished enough to show to the outside world.
This brings the student to the first and foremost decision
when one starts his/her Graduation Film; which route do
you take? This question, and the individual answer, greatly
decides the direction the Graduation Film will take, and it
constantly bore heavy on my mind when I started work on
my Graduation Project, and does even after the completion
of the film.
I have always sided with the experimental (maybe

reckless) approach, but in my case this decision was also
influenced by my first fiction film ‘Abhinay’, which I made
for my Fiction Project as part of my course at NID. The film
was quite experimental, and although I learnt a lot from
it, I realised that a complex film form alienated Indian
audiences, most of who are not used to watching complex
narrative structures as part of their regular visual diet. In
Mahaantam, although not evident at first glance, there is

1.3 What kind of film?
I was very clear from the beginning that I wanted to make that one has to be more explicit in the telling of the story
a fiction. I had just finished my last documentary, ‘Vande in both the sensory mediums so that the audience can fully
Mataram’, and also worked on other documentaries, and I understand the emotion. Where one can describe the feeling
wanted the freedom to decide the story and the control over of ‘sadness’ in just that word, the emotion in a film can take
the medium that only a Fiction film can provide. The only an entire film to arrive at, and still be very easy to miss.
question was of what kind.
One also understands that some authors’ styles are more
I initially started with the idea of adapting a story. Adapting conducive to adapting to film than others. In my reading,
a story gives you the benefit of drawing from the creative and I was primarily reading Indian authors, I found Munshi
capacities of the greatest storytellers in history, and gives Premchand, Sadat Hassan Manto, Ismat Chugtai and R.K.
you the freedom to interpret those stories in your own Narayan particularly well suited for adaptation to film. My
capacity and style, at the same time giving you more mind- personal favourite was a short by Manto called ‘Perin’, which
space to work on the form and language of the film, without I hope to remake into a film sometime later.
needing to worry about the structure and pace of the story
or plot, which has already been figured out by the original The main problem I faced with adaptation was my own
author. It was with this in mind that I started reading stories, imagination. I would take the basic premise of the story,
with a clear intent of adaptation. and start creating my own characters, and they would then
become much more personal and therefore dear to me, and
When reading for adapting to the medium of film, one hence I will start building my own stories. It is in this process
understands better the difference between the written word that I came up with many stories, which were discussed,
and the audio-visual medium of the screen. You realise that debated and then rejected by my Guide until we reached
in film, the added inputs of the optical and auditory senses the story of Mahaantam.
both empowers the filmmaker as well as takes away from
him. When one reads, although only one sense is in play,
the written word draws from the viewers own life, and hence
the viewer participates in the storytelling process by filling
in his own experience in the void between the written word
and the understanding of it in one’s head and imagination.
But in film, although one has the benefit of other senses
and hence a greater canvas on which to paint, one realises

1.4 The idea of social context
example let’s say farmers, and most films revolve around

protagonists who live well to do lives within cities and
metropolitans. There obviously is regional cinema to
counter this movement, and to create films in the local
context, but from where I come from (Bihar), regional
cinema has since long oriented itself to a certain kind of
cinema, which mimics the aspirations of the heroics seen in
more ‘larger-than-life’ Bollywood films, and in the process
creates an amalgam which is then fed to audiences who go
to the theatre to forget their troubles.
Source: Huffingtonpost It was because of this thought process, and also the
logistical benefits of shooting it in my hometown, that made
Context has been a topic that I have grappled with since
me want to set the film in Bihar. But although I came up
I have started creating content, may it be photographs,
with plots based both on political context and otherwise,
comics, graphics, films, or any other work of ‘art’. The
somehow the one that both my guide and I liked I liked was
notion of creating art for oneself always gives me a sense
the one which was based most strongly around the idea of
of self-indulgence. I always question if filmmakers today,
nationalism.
and especially the ones who are aware of contemporary
socio-political environment, can afford in the greater
sense of responsibility that this career option puts on our
shoulders. This sense, on the other hand, creates a conflict
between the stories that we want to tell which come out of
a personal creative urge but might not necessarily have a
social context.
The reality of things as I see them is that mainstream

Indian cinema has, relative to its previous years, moved
towards a more urban-audience friendly system, especially
targeting the middle class. Hence suddenly you see a gross
underrepresentation of different sections of society, for

1.5 The dilemma of a political film
Even after coming to the basic plot of Mahaantam, I still

was undecided if I should go ahead with the film or not. The
problem lay not in my affinity to the plot, but to the political
nature of the film. As mentioned earlier, the Graduation Film
is also the film that is placed first in one’s portfolio when
one goes out in the world looking for work. With that in
mind, making a political film constantly makes you wonder
if it might work against you in the future, especially with
the increasing political polarity and conservativeness in the
country.

There is a limit of political brazenness that one can display,
both due to the times and the fear of future repercussions.
This thought stays at the back of your mind as you write ‘What use is the film?’
the plot itself, and is an important factor in deciding the
approach to the narrative. This ‘fear’ might be the reason for
the kind of subtle storytelling attempted in the film.
The greatest uncertainty comes from the decision of being

subtle. In political films, one has to understand that a
certain political awareness is required for subtleties to be
understood by audiences, and this acts as a limiter to your
audience. This is another question that has boggled me in
my filmmaking journey. Somehow, with subtle political films,
one might limit the viewership of the films from the people
itself who the film might be talking about or targeting, which
then again raise the question; ‘what use is the film?’.

02
Conceptualization
2.1 Returning to Nationalism 24-25
Why Nationalism?
Limitations of a documentary
The idea of a trilogy
2.2 The initial plot 26-29
The gender question
2.3 The Characters 30-31
2.4 The Script 32-43

2.1 Returning to Nationalism
Why Nationalism? The idea of nationalism though isn’t a basic human emotion,
but is inculcated gradually through a life-time of influences.
If one looks at the history of India, the influences have been
Nationalism, as mentioned before, was the topic of my last
numerous, spanning multiple media, from school textbooks
documentary film. Then why return to it? I think there are
to radio and finally, to one of the widest influences; movies.
two facets to this answer; the contemporary context, and
Whether it be the 50’s and 60’s films teaching a young nation
the hangover of the last film.
to inculcate a new identity, or the late 90’s and 2000’s
war movies creating a sense of national pride and hatred
towards a neighbouring country, movies have played an
important role in the spread of nationalism, especially in
our country. I think that using the same medium to try to
bring attention to the problems of nationalism might just
be retribution for the same.
The other aspect was the hangover of my last documentary.

In the process of researching and shooting the documentary,
I started seeing the depths at which these concepts work.
There were so many things about nationalism that I thought
needed to be told, and to which the documentary medium
(Photo : PTI) would not be able to do justice. Hence those bottled up
concepts came pouring out as this film.
The JNU incident of 9th Feb 2016 suddenly brought into
limelight the growing sense of nationalistic fervour in
the country. Suddenly one found the occurrence of the
term ‘anti-national’ grow exponentially in the national
vocabulary. Since then, the ideology of nationalism has
been on the rise. It is the great excuse for everything, the
great reason for everything, and enjoys complete insulation
from any kind of questioning because of its own nature.

The limitations of a documentary The idea of a trilogy
The strongest element of a documentary, if made with The idea then struck me of making a trilogy of films on
integrity, is truth. The idea of watching ‘reality’, or events Nationalism, each dealing with a different aspect of it in a
that have actually happened, adds to the medium the medium most suited to it. This is the second of this hopeful
quality of the audiences’ inherent belief in the actuality of trilogy, the last of which might be a docu-fiction.
what they are witnessing, which provides a sturdy base for
a greater impact than traditional fiction films, although the
actual impact obviously varies between different narratives
and the skill of the storyteller. But this also gives rise to a
lot of limitations.
I think the greatest limitation of a documentary is luck.

If luck was quantifiable, the more one has of it, probably
the more sought after a documentary filmmaker one might
be. Although it is not always about being at the right place
in the right time, it is a big help to be there. The other
limitation of documentary is the non-occurrence of Deja-vu
in nature. One has to have the presence of mind to point the
camera in the right direction or stay at a shot for just a little
bit longer. All of these, although being called limitations,
are also challenges that the clever documentary filmmaker
works around or, with pure skill, works through them.
All of these challenges I had come across in my last film, and
although I enjoyed the process, I wanted more control on
the medium to try to bring forth a more ‘rounded’ narrative,
hence the choice for a fiction.

2.2 The initial plot
The story is set around 5-6 years from now, when India has playing ‘India Pakistan’ in the back of their notebooks as
seen a surge of Hindu fanaticism and has succumbed to the teacher read out the day’s lesson (Patel and Uniting
Hindutva ideology of being a Hindu nation, and might be India). The second period was art and craft, which Aditya
at war with Pakistan since the past two-three months. This spent drawing a face of a man with a beard but without a
won’t be stated explicitly anywhere in the film, but would moustache, something he had seen once on the television,
be the setting. while the teacher chatted with the Maths teacher Shambhit
at the door. At the end of the class, everyone went with
Characters: their drawings to the teacher, who checked and gave grades
Aditya: 7 years old on everyone’s paper. Aditya’s bench-mate got a 9/10 for his
Vaibhav: 10 years old drawing of a pundit, while Aditya received a 4/10, with a
Shambhit: 26 years old corrective moustache drawing over his drawing.
Aditya’s father: 37 years old
The school ended and everyone made their way to their
Aditya’s mother woke him up to the sound of the radio that vans. Shambhit made his way around the departing vans,
his father played every morning, set to AIR. The national handing out one sheet of printed paper to every kid he could
anthem played in the background as his mother hustled reach, finally getting into the same van as Aditya got into,
him and his brother into the bathroom. Bhajans played as and handed everyone in his van one such pamphlet. Aditya
he was taking a bath, and continued as he had his breakfast looked up the pamphlet. It spoke about secularism and
with his brother, his father sitting at the table reading the resisting the political brainwashing of kids in the school.
newspaper as his mother hurried along her morning chores. He didn’t understand anything that he read, so he turned
There was a sound of a van outside, and both brothers it around and started drawing Shambhit’s face onto the
hurried towards the doors with their bags, kissing their backside, completing which he folded it dutifully and kept
father good day on their way. it in his bag. His brother on the other hand folded it into a
paper plane that he eventually launched out of the window.
Aditya’s class started with another customary national Shambhit got out at the same stop as Aditya and his brother
anthem, after which followed two bhajans, which all the kids as they stayed in the same colony, and walked them home,
sang with practiced devotion and dedication. The classes exchanging a few words with their mother before heading
started as usual, with the teacher taking attendance as to his house a few doors away.
Aditya played around at the back with his friends. The first
lesson was GK, which Aditya and his bench partner spent That evening found Aditya and his brother playing behind

the house as usual, with his brother being and Indian Aditya wakes up again to the national anthem on the radio.
commando and him being a Pakistani commando, both Follows the same routine as the day before, but finds
hiding behind things and trying to ‘shoot’ the other. This day Shambhit at the dining table for breakfast. His father looks
Aditya managed to circumvent his brother and shoot him grim and Shambhit looks shaken up, with the morning
from the back, to which his brother hurled dialogues he had newspaper between them on the table. As Aditya hears the
heard in hindi films about Pakistanis being back-stabbers, van come into the colony, he inquires if Shambhit will be
and that Indian commandos don’t die with a few bullets, and coming to school, to which he replies that he won’t be able
then proceeding to ‘shoot’ Aditya to death with his toy gun. to make it today.
As Aditya dramatically fell, he could see a commotion a few
doors away at Shambhit’s house. A crowd of angry adults At school, after the national anthem and the bhajan, there is
had gathered around Shambhit and were shouting at him, an announcement made by the class teacher that Shambhit
waving the morning’s pamphlet in his face. As he peeped has been suspended from his duties, and that everyone
over his gate to get a closer view, a police van parked near who has a copy of the pamphlet should deposit it to the
the house, and a policeman with two constables got out teacher immediately. A couple of students dutifully take
and headed to where the commotion was happening. their copies to the teacher, but Aditya doesn’t own up to
his copy.
Aditya heard his father exiting the house and running over
to the commotion, his mother looking on from the gate. During lunch, Aditya and his friends sit in class, talking over
Aditya’s father quickly took a quick overview of the situation their tiffins. One of the kids bring up the topic of Shambhit,
from Shambhit and told him to not worry as the police took and boasts how he read in the paper in the morning that he
him away in the van. Aditya’s father then hurried back to his was an ‘anti-national’, and is probably Pakistani. Aditya got
house and dressed and left behind the car. annoyed at this incrimination, and decided to leave to fill
his water bottle rather than argue.
Aditya and his brother waited late for their father to arrive
for dinner, after which their mother fed them and put them That evening Aditya spied his father heading over to the
to sleep. Aditya was about to fall into sleep when his brother colony’s meeting from the window as he sat on the table
woke him up and signalled to him that father had returned. finishing his homework. There was a loud argument, and
Both of them creeped downstairs to see their father having plenty of shouting, both on and by his father. The doorbell
dinner with a dishevelled Shambhit, who was then told by rang, and he opened it to find Shambhit with a bedding and
their father to stay over at their house till this blows off. two big suitcases, which Aditya proceeds to move into the

guest bedroom. window broken. He hurriedly hugs his wife and his kids and
tells them not to worry.
Next day in school, Aditya reaches class to find that his
bench-mate had shifted his seat. When asked why, he That night Aditya lies in bed listening to his mother and
said it was because his parents had told him to stay clear father arguing in the dining room. He sneaks out to the
of Aditya because of Shambhit. At lunch, Aditya hears a staircase to listen to them, to find his brother and Shambhit
commotion in the hallway. He runs to find that his brother already there, listening in silence. Shambhit’s face is a
was fighting with a friend, and everyone else was cheering mixture of fear and worry, something which leaves a deep
them on. A teacher stops them and pulls his brother to impression on Aditya. Suddenly Shambhit stands and heads
the Principal’s office by his ear, and doesn’t do anything to down to the drawing room where the parents are arguing,
the other kid. Aditya tries to follow them, but the teacher and stops them. He then tells them that he’ll be leaving the
sends him back to his class. Mid-way next period, a teacher next morning. Both the parents look at him in silence.
comes to Aditya’s class and tells him to follow her with Next morning Shambhit brings down his bags during
his bag and belongings. He fearfully follows his teacher breakfast, and then eats with them in silence. After
to the Principal’s office, outside which he sees his father breakfast he leaves and calls an auto from the main road,
standing with his brother. His father beckons for his hand, loads his luggage and bedding onto it, and with a last hug
and heads to the car nearby. to Aditya’s father, leaves. After his auto turns the corner, his
father closes the door and silently sobs with his face in his
Next day Aditya and his brother spend at home. Their father hands. That’s the first time Aditya has seen his father cry.
tells them, to their happiness and joy, that school is off for
a few days for them. Shambhit offers to help with making The next morning Aditya rises earlier than usual. He is
lunch, and invites Aditya and Vaibhav to join in. They have halfway down the stairs for breakfast when the radio starts.
a nice time cooking, and everyone is enjoying their time His father makes his way to the door to receive the morning
together, when suddenly a stone is thrown in through the newspaper, which he opens and reads on his way to the
window right between them. Everyone is shocked, and table. He suddenly stops and screams his wife’s name. She
Aditya’s mother is very scared by this incident. She shuts comes running from the kitchen. He lunges for his phone
all windows and curtains and tells all three to go to their and calls, inquiring about Shambhit. He is unable to finish
rooms and do the same, and then stay in the drawing his query before he falls silent. Then he slips down on the
room till their father arrives. Aditya’s father arrives in a chair, sitting with a stunned, blank look. Aditya looks at his
hurry, and is stunned to see the stone on the floor and the parents and doesn’t understand what has happened, and

asks his father, who doesn’t respond. He turns to his brother, The gender question
who burst into tears and hugged his mother, who sobbed
into his hair. Aditya just sits looking from one parent to the Personally I have always had problems writing female
other with confusion, heading to the paper and looking at characters, mainly because I constantly question the
the headlines, which state that some people from a political character motivations and my own understanding of them,
party had beaten up an anti-national teacher last night. especially due to my own gender, and the biases that I have
Some time has passed. How much, no one on the table knew. unconsciously inculcated and grown up with. In my journey
Aditya’s father’s face has a tired, defeated expression as at NID, this was a big question that I have come across.
he sits motionless looking into nothingness. Vaibhav has Patriarchy is a reality, and our film are just a reflection of
fallen asleep in his mother’s arms with exhaustion. Aditya the same. After writing the plot, I was conscious of the fact
sat drawing something on the table, giving glances to his that there were no proper female characters. The mother,
father and mother’s blank faces. He suddenly remembered although I had written her character description, constantly
something, and reached into his bag for a notebook, from played a side-role in the plot.
which he carefully extracted a folded pamphlet page. He
opened it to Shambhit’s sketch and handed it to his father, This made me relook the characters from the gender
who looked at it, and turned it around to read the article perspective. Two constant questions that I asked myself was
on the back, and then turned it back around to look into what is the importance of the gender of the character relative
Shambhit’s face drawn on the back. He then looks back at his to the narrative, and if it added or took away something from
son, who gives him a soft smile as tears roll down his father’s the narrative. The second question looked at the overall
face. gender balance of the narrative, and if the balance was
skewed was it because the narrative required it to be so
or was it because of my own inability to imagine a gender
balanced narrative.
Looking at the plot, and asking these questions, led to the

decision of changing the main protagonist to a little girl
rather than a boy.

2.3 The Characters
Gauri is 7 years old, the second child Aditya is 10, and the first child to Aravind is 39 years old engineer from
to Archana and Aravind. She is a quiet Archana and Arvind. He has seen his Darbhanga, Bihar. He studied engineering
girl who likes to draw and colour. She parents struggle when he was very young, from a college in Bangalore. After he
is a scrawny kid, with an innocent face, and that has made him a silent and less- finished his graduation, he shifted to
is timid and non-confrontational, and demanding child. A product of trying not Mumbai, where he got a job in a small IT
stays more in her own head. She likes to to bother his parents, he has learnt to firm, but he stayed because the pay was
play, but is not into any sports and her internalise his feelings, but at times it much better, and he had to send money
parents don’t push him too much, so she comes out against his school-mates. A back home. There he met Archana, who
has a slowness about her, but is not dull. scrawny child just like his sister, he is worked in a bank in Navi Mumbai, and
very attached and affectionate towards they fell in love and later married.
By the time Gauri was born, her parents her, and lets her tag along with him in
had already settled into their new home, whatever he does, taking care of her in Arvind has a strong moral backbone, and
and had a stable income, and thus her the process. wants to do social work but is limited by
bringing up was not a burden for the his socio-economic status and job, but
parents, and thus she hasn’t seen any of still tries his best to do his bit for the
the struggle that her parents, or Aditya society. He is courageous and believes in
(to some extent) had. Her brother has standing his ground if he believes he is
been her most constant companion right.
and friend, even though she has a lot of
friends in her school and colony.

Shambhit is from a lower-income Archana is a 36 year old bank employee, Sinha is the resident general education
group family from Patna. His father was born in Gorakhpur, UP. She was a brilliant teacher at Gauri’s school. He is a lazy
a maths professor at a small college in student, and after her B.A. managed to teacher who is in the school because of his
Patna City, where he spent his entire clear the service exam for a private contacts with the school administration,
school days. Brought up on a diet of bank, where she worked at the Mumbai and doesn’t take his job seriously. He is
moral education and being the ideal office when she met Aravind. Although found generally whiling away his time on
son, he developed a strong sense of duty being from a conservative family, she his phone or chatting away with younger
ever since he was young, which stayed was drawn to Aravind’s strong moral teachers, who are not able to avoid him
with him throughout his life. After school sense and dedication and perseverance out of politeness and the fact that he is a
he persued a B.A. from Delhi University, towards his work. senior teacher. He is also shrewd and has
where he was a good student who kept a talent for politics, which has cemented
to his studies and away from trouble. She is a dedicate mother, and after his role in the school’s functioning, and
In the big city he constantly felt that he leaving her job her life revolves around therefore people find it more difficult to
was part of a crowd, and yearned for the the kids, who she frets over and dotes take a stand against him.
strong relationships that he had back in on.
his hometown.
After college he decided to come back

to Bihar as he wanted to work for the
people he grew up with and around, and
decided to become a teacher in Bihar
because he wanted to work with children
and in education.

2.4 The Script
CHARACTERS: AUR UNCHAI CHOO RAHI HAI. HUMAARE NIDAR PRADHAN

GAURI MANTRI NE SARHAD PE FIRING KI BADHTEE GHATNAON
ADITYA (Elder brother) PE KAHA ‘HUM BHARATWASI EENT KA JAWAAB PATHAR
ARAVIND (Father) SE DENGE’. PICHLE HAFTE MAIN BHARATIYA SENA
ARCHANA (Mother) NE 12 AATANKWADIYON KO MAAR GIRAAYA LEKIN IS
SHAMBHIT (Teacher) KOSHISH MAIN HUMAARI SENA KE 3 JAWAAN SHAHEED
SINHA (Art Teacher) HUE. HUM UNKI JABAAZI KO SALAAM KARTE HAIN.
TEJAS (Gauri’s best friend) AUR KHEL KI DUNIYA MAIN AAJ MS DHONI RETIREMENT…
Gauri and Aditya finish their food and hear
SCENE 1 their school van / auto pulling in front of
their house. Both of them rush with their bags,
INT. HOUSE. BEDROOM OF GAURI (7 years old) and but Gauri stops just as she reaches the gate
ADITYA (10 years old). EARLY MORNING. and runs back into the house to grab her box
of pencil colours from his room, and then runs
JANA GANA MANA ON THE RADIO IN THE BACKGROUND back to the van / auto.
Gauri’s mother (ARCHANA 38 years old) wakes

her up to the national anthem playing in the ***
background. She sleepily gets up and heads
to the bathroom, where her brother is on the SCENE 2
toilet. She brushes groggily, and then gives
way to her brother to wash his hands. Her INT. GAURI’S CLASSROOM IN SCHOOL. SAME MORNING.
mother calls them to hurry up. She takes a SOFT MURMUR OF CHILDREN VOICES AND AMBIENCE OF
quick bath and rushes to the dining table, THE SCHOOL.
where her father (ARAVIND, 39 years old) is
sitting reading the newspaper with the radio All children are sitting in class talking and
playing in the background. chatting and SHAMBHIT (26-year-old teacher) is
RADIO: NAMASTE DOSTON. AAJ KE THANDI SUBAH KO checking everyone’s notebooks. He calls Gauri
EK BAAR PHIR AAPKE PAAS LAATE HUE AAPKI DOST and she comes to the teacher’s table.
SUJATA APKO HARDIK SUPRABHAT KEHTI HAI.
AAJ KE SAMACHAAR KUCH IS PRAKAR HAIN. BHARAT SHAMBHIT
AUR USKE DUSHMAN MULKON KE BEECH TANAO AB EK (turning to the last page of the copy to reveal

some drawings) looks at the drawing of the soldier and is very
Gauri, yeh maths copy main drawing banaate impressed.
hain kya?
SINHA
GAURI Arey wah! Yeh toh bohot achcha banaya hai
Sorry Shambhit Bhaiya. tumne! Aur hamaara bhaarat mahaan bhi likha
hai! Yeh toh pakka bahar lagega!
SHAMBHIT (hands it to Shambhit)
(with a smirk) Sinha looks at Gauri’s drawing and gives it an
Achcha banayi ho. Ab se apne drawing copy main 8 out of 10. She has drawn a mother cooking
banana. Wapas se nahi milna chahiye. food in the house.
Bell rings for the first period to end, and SHAMBHIT

Shambhit gathers his stuff and the next teacher Hmmm… banaaya bohot achcha hai… lekin…
comes in. Its art class and the art teacher
SINHA (52 years old man) asks Shambhit to sit SINHA
as the kids had to do their own work. Lekin?
SINHA SHAMBHIT
Haan, toh aaj hum sab ek ek achchi drawing Matlab… Mera Bharat Mahan…
banayenge. Ispe marks milenge, toh acche se
banana. Highest marks milne wale drawings SINHA
humlog bahar board pe lagayeinge. Haan toh?
(to Shambhit)
Abhi class hai kya? Toh baitho idhar hi. Waise SHAMBHIT
bhi bachche apna kaam kar rahe hain. Apko isme kuch bhi apattijanak nahi lag raha?
The two teachers sit in the front while all SINHA

children do their own drawings. Gauri and Nahi. Bilkul nahi.
Gauri’s bench-mate (TEJAS) finish their’s early
and go to show it to Sinha. Tejas has drawn an SHAMBHIT
Indian soldier killing an enemy soldier. SINHA (lightly)

Hmmm… Mujhe bas lagta hai ki shikshak ka farz CHILDREN MURMURING, LATER TRAFFIC SOUNDS.
hai ki bachchon ko nafrat se door le jaana.
Yeh toh usko badhaava dene waali baat ho gayi. All children are reaching their vans / autos.
Nahi? Gauri and her bench-mate reach theirs to find
a bunch a photocopied paper on the seat. They
SINHA look over to the next autos to find similar
Dekho. Humko mat sikhao siksha ke baare main. bundles of papers on other autos/vans too.
Umr dekho pehele apni. Himmat kaise hui humse Once the auto starts moving, Gauri looks up the
aise baat karne ki?! Tumhaare hum-umr lag paper to find that it’s the same drawing that
rahe hain hum. 30 saal ho gaye padhaate hue. his bench-mate had made earlier, but had been
changed. Where it read ‘Mera Bharat Mahaan’
Shambhit had been added the question ‘Kyun hai?’.
Aap meri baat ka galat matlab mat nikaaliye. Gauri looks at it for some time, then notices
her brother looking at it thoughtfully. Then her
SINHA brother makes a plane out of it, and launches
(going and putting up the drawing on the board) it out the window. Shambhit notices this and
Yeh yahin rahega. Class meri hai. Aapko jo gives a smile to himself. Gauri flips over the
baat karni hai Principal se kariye. paper, and proceeds to draw Shambhit’s face on
(And he walks back into class) the back.
They reach their colony and Gauri, Aditya and
Shambhit quietly leaves class. Gauri watches Shambhit get out in front of Gauri’s house,
him looking at the drawing outside. Then she where ARCHANA is waiting for them. She takes
sees him quietly take it out and take it with Gauri’s schoolbag from her and says Namaste to
him. Shambhit.
*** SHAMBHIT
Namaste Bhabhi. Sab theek?
SCENE 3
ARCHANA
EXT. SCHOOL / INT. SCHOOL VAN / AUTO. AFTERNOON Haan haan. Who Bai aa rahi hai na har roz?
AROUND 1 PM. Khaana theek bana rahi hai?

SHAMBHIT GAURI
Haan haan Bhabhi. Ab sab theek hai. Dhishkiyaoon! Dishkiyaoon!
Then Shambhit leaves for his house which is ADITYA

two houses away from Gauri’s house. (falling to the ground)
Humko pata hona chahiye tha ki dushman mulk
*** peeche se vaar karta hai!
SCENE 4 Gauri is playing dead when his brother steps

over him and she opens his eyes to see what he’s
EXT. GAURI’S HOUSE. EARLY EVENING (AROUND 5 PM). doing. Then she hears a commotion in front of the
house two houses from his house. Both children
AMBIENT SOUNDS OF THE COLONY. look over the wall at the commotion. A group
of parents have gathered around the entrance
Gauri is hiding crouched behind a wall. She to the house and are agitatedly discussing
peeks out from behind the wall, looking for something and waving the same photocopy of the
his brother, but couldn’t find him anywhere. drawing that Gauri had gotten in her auto /
Her brother gradually sneaks in behind him and van. Then Shambhit emerges from the house.
shouts
SHAMBHIT
ADITYA Haan Uncle?
Ha Ha! Ab tum mere changul main phass gaye ho!
Ab tum narq main sadogi! Dhishkiyaaooon!!! PARENT 1
(waving the paper in front of his face)
GAURI Yeh kya hai?
(dramatically flailing around as if shot) (Shambhit doesn’t answer)
Nahiiiiinnn! Yeh kya hai?? Aur yeh mere bachche ke paas
kaise aayi?!
ADITYA
Aur Indian Army ne dushman mulk ko khatam kar PARENT 2
diya! Jawaab do. Yeh tumhara hi kaam hai na? Himmat
kaise hui tumhari?

Apko isme galti kya dikh rahi hai?! Yeh sawaal
SHAMBHIT toh zaroori hai bachchon ko bataana!
Lekin aap itna kyun gussa rahe hain?
At this point Aravind gets out of the house
PARENT 2 and hurries over. PARENT 2 takes out his phone
(Angrily) and makes a call. Things get heated between
Humse pooch rahe ho hum gussa kyun ho rahe Parent 1 / Parent 2 and Shambhit, with Aravind
hain?! Yeh kya hai? Kaisa sawaal hai yeh? ‘Mera calming things down.
Bharat mahaan kyun hai?!’ Yeh padha rahe ho A police van enters the colony and heads over
hamaare bachchon ko? to the commotion. Parent 1 and Parent 2 have
a conversation with the policemen and show
SHAMBHIT him the drawing. The policeman looks at the
Lekin isme galat kya hai? drawing and tells Shambhit to get in the car
to go to the station for questioning. They get
PARENT 1 in and are leaving as Aravind head into the
Isko apni Galati bhi nahi dikh rahi hai! Dekho house and get his coat and shoes and hurries
zara! Kal hi main iske school ja raha hoon after them on his scooter. Archana also exits
complain karne ke liye the house after him and then tells Gauri and
Aditya to get back into the house.
PARENT 2
Nahi bhaisahab. Humko yeh baat report karni ***
hai. Yeh toh bohot gambheer baat hai. Aaj chote
bachchon ko yeh sab sikha raha hai. Kal ko kya SCENE 5
ho!
INT. HOUSE. LATE NIGHT.
PARENT 3
Aur nahi toh kya? Aur hum iske baare main SOUND OF THE TV WITH A MYTHOLOGICAL SERIAL
jaante kitna hai? Koi bhi ho sakta hai! RUNNING
Archana, Aditya and Gauri are sitting watching

SHAMBHIT the TV. Gauri is about to fall asleep in front
Arey! Aunty aap kaisi Baatein kar rahin hain?! of the TV when she hears the sound of Aravind’s

scooter pulling in front of the house. She GAURI
hurries to the window, glances out and then Good Morning Shambhit Bhaiya
heads to the door and opens it. Aravind and
Shambhit are standing at the door, Shambhit SHAMBHIT
looking a little dishevelled. (distractedly)
Archana gets off the sofa and beckons them to Haan bachche.
the dining table, where the food is set.
Shambhit reads something, and then grimly
ARCHANA passes it to Arvind. He reads it and turns
(to the kids) grim. He reads the entire article and puts the
Bhaiya ke liye plate lagao. Haan. Ab chalo sone newspaper down with a frown as they hear the
jao. Late ho gaya hai. school van coming to a halt in front of their
house.
ARAVIND ARCHANA
(to Archana) Jaldi karo!
Suno. Shambhit ka bhi bistar laga do. Idhar hi
so jayega. GAURI
(hurriedly finishing his breakfast and getting
SCENE 6 off the table)
Shamhit Bhaiya, aap nahi aa rahe ho?
INT. HOUSE. BEDROOM OF GAURI (7 years old) and
ADITYA (10 years old). EARLY MORNING. SHAMBHIT
Nahi Bachche. Aaj nahi.
JANA GANA MANA ON THE RADIO IN THE BACKGROUND
Gauri and Aditya leave, with Gauri looking back
Gauri wakes up again to the national anthem at the table and Shambhit sitting worriedly.
playing in the background. She goes to the
bathroom and dresses up with Aditya. As she ***
goes to the dining table, she sees Shambhit
sitting with her father at the table, both
looking grim, and Shambhit looking worriedly
at the newspaper.

SCENE 7 There is no teacher in the classroom. The
cacophony of the kids is broken by Sinha, who
EXT. SCHOOL. EARLY MORNING. enters the class and everyone sits down.
ASSEMBLY IN SESSION. SINHA

Aaj se aap log ke Shambhit Sir aapko padhaane
(ALL CHILDREN) nahi aayenge. Jiske paas bhi kal Van ya Bus
Where the mind is without fear and the head main mili paper hai who humko aa ke de do, nahi
is held high toh kisi ke paas bhi mili toh usko punishment
Where knowledge is free milegi.
Where the world has not been broken up into
fragments Some students take out the papers from their
By narrow domestic walls bags and put them on the teacher’s table. Gauri
Where words come out from the depth of truth doesn’t move.
Where tireless striving stretches its arms
towards perfection ***
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost
its way SCENE 9
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee EXT. GAURI’S HOUSE. EVENING.
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my SOUND OF PEOPLE CHATTING OUTSIDE IN A MEETING.
country awake.
The colony people have called a meeting outside
*** Gauri’s house. They are discussing what has to
be done with Shambhit and what steps have to be
SCENE 8 taken next. Gauri and Aditya are standing on
boxes behind the wall, looking at the meeting.
INT. CLASSROOM. EARLY MORNING. ARAVIND
(Angrily to PARENT 1)
SOUND OF CHILDREN IN CLASSROOM Yeh kya anaap shanaap Baatein aap paper main
likhwa rahe hain?! Aapko pata hai isse kya asar

padega bechare ladke ke career pe?! Phir aap beech main pad rahe hain. Aapko kya
farq padta hai who kahin bhi jaaye!
PARENT 1
Yeh toh usko pehele sochna chahiye tha. Aur aap ARAVIND
beech main kyun pad rahe hain. Aapki baat toh Yeh mere aur Shambhit ke beech ki baat hai.
hai nahi. Aapke ghar main toh nahi rahega na…
ARAVIND The kids hear Shambhit knocking on the main

Arey! Mujhe jo theek lagega who main karoonga. gate of their house, and Aditya runs to get the
door. Shambhit is holding on to his bedding
PARENT 1 and some suitcases.
To humein bhi jo theek lagega who hum karenge.
***
PARENT 2
Dekhiye, Sharma ji ne decide kiya hai ki who ab SCENE 10
Shambhit ko apne ghar pe nahi rakhenge. Usko
aaj hi samaan khaali karna hoga. INT. CLASSROOM. EARLY MORNING AFTER ASSEMBLY.
ARAVIND ASSEMBLY ENDING AND CHILDREN RUNNING BACK TO

Toh abhi is samay bechaara kahan jayega?! CLASS.
PARENT 1 Gauri reaches her seat to find that there is no

Who yeh jaane! Humse kya lena dena? bag beside it. Her benchmate has shifted his
seat to the next bench.
PARENT 2
Jahan jaana hai jaye. Gharon ki kami thodai GAURI
hai? (to friend)
Wahan kyun baithe ho?
ARAVIND
Toh phir who mere saath rahega. FRIEND
Papa mana kiye hain tumhare saath baithne ke
PARENT 1 liye.

GAURI Gauri is sitting in class when a peon comes to
(with a frown) the classroom and announces her name and that
Kyun? she is being called to the Principal’s office and
asks her to get her bag and belongings along.
At this moment there is a commotion in the Gauri gets nervous and scared as she is led
hallway outside and everybody is running towards to the Principal office, and even more so when
it. Gauri and her classmates also go outside to she sees Aravind and Aditya waiting outside
find that Sinha has Aditya and another kid in with the Principal on Aravind’s scooter. As
his grip, as if they were both fighting she arrives, Aravind puts her on the scooter
and drives home.
SINHA
(to Aditya) ***
Yeh kya gundagardi laga rakhe ho?
SCENE 12
ADITYA
Who humko pehele bola tha! EXT. HOUSE.
SINHA SOUND OF DISTANT CARS PASSING.

Ab zubaan bhi ladaoge humse?! Chalo abhi
Principal ke paas. Shambhit, Gauri and Aditya are playing
badminton outside the house. Aditya and
Sinha drags Aditya to the Principal’s office and Shambhit are playing and Gauri is waiting for
tells all the kids to return to class. her turn and watching them play.
Shmabhit is suddenly distracted by 2 men who
*** are hanging a little further out down the
road on a motorcycle, and are staring at them
SCENE 11 playing badminton.
Shambhit keeps on getting distracted by the
INT. CLASSROOM / EXT. PRINCIPAL’S OFFICE. EARLY men, who keep on staring at them, and gets
MORNING. worried and uneasy.
SHAMBHIT
BACKGROUND MURMUR OF SCHOOL CHILDREN (to kids)

Achcha chalo, hum thak gaye. SCENE 13
GAURI INT. BETWEEN THE BEDROOM AND DINING ROOM. NIGHT.

Lekin humko bhi khelna hai!
SOUND OF ARVIND AND ARCHANA DISCUSSING IN
SHAMBHIT HUSHED TONES.
Chalo na andar ludo khelayenge.
Gauri is lying in her bed listening to her
Shambhit picks up Gauri and gets her to sit parent’s voices in the distance. She turns
on his shoulders. All three come inside the around to see her brother and Shambhit sitting
house. Archana is cooking in the kitchen. at the door, listening to the conversation.
Aditya notices her and beckons her over and
ADITYA motions her to be quiet.
(shouting) Archana and Arvind are sitting at the dining
Maaaa. Khaane main kya hai?? table talking quietly.
Shambhit is playing with Gauri and swinging ARCHANA

her in his arms. Aditya opens the ludo board on Kya guarantee hai ki yeh phir nahin hoga?
the table and is setting up the gotis. Archana
pours milk into two cups and puts Bournvita in ARVIND
them. As she reaches the table a stone breaks Toh police main complain karte hain.
in through the window, breaking the glass, and
lands inside the house. ARCHANA
Aur baat badhaane ke liye?
Shambhit quickly puts down Gauri and leaves
her with Archana as he runs out the door to ARVIND
the sound of a motorcycle passing. Toh kya karein? Bechaare ko ghar se nikaal
Archana grabs both the kids to herself and dein?
shields them with her body as Gauri blankly
stares at her and then the stone. ARCHANA
Humko nahi pata. Agar kuch aur bura hua kal
*** toh? Kya kareinge?

ARVIND looks at the auto till it disappears into the
(silent) fog in the distance. Tears drip down Gauri’s
face.
ARCHANA
Agar bachchon ko lag jaata toh? Agar kuch ho ***
jaata toh?
SCENE 14
Shambhit gets up from behind the door and
walks into the dining room INT. GAURI’S HOUSE. MORNING.
SHAMBHIT Gauri is sitting on the dining table drawing.

Bhaiya, Bhabhi. Aapne bohot kiya hai mere liye. The newspaper is thrown into the backyard,
Lekin ab baat bachchon ki suraksha ki hai. and Arvind retrieves it and gets to the table.
Main aisa risk nahi le sakta hoon. Archana serves tea and milk to the kids and
goes back to the kitchen. Arvind reaches the
ARVIND table and opens the newspaper and starts
Dekho, tum pareshaan mat… reading as Aditya takes the comic section and
starts reading.
SHAMBHIT
(interrupting) Arvind suddenly comes across a news article
Agar bachchon ko kuch ho jaata toh? and is startled
ARVIND
All three sit in silence. Shambhit turns around Archana!
and walks back to his room and starts packing
his stuff. ARCHANA
Kya hua?
He wheels his suitcases and bedding out to the (Not hearing a reply comes walking to the
main door, and leaves to get an auto. The auto dining table)
arrives and he places the luggage into the auto Kya hua? Arey?
as the entire family watches from the gate. He
then turns and says good bye to the family, (Arvind hands her the newspaper. She reads
hugs Arvind, and then gets into the auto. Gauri and sits down)

Naam…? Nahi likha hai. Koi aur bhi ho sakta
hai.
ARVIND
Hmmm.
Aditya pulls the paper towards himself and

reads the title and then looks at his parents,
then he continues reading.
The newspaper covers what Gauri is drawing,

and she removes her drawing book from under
the newspaper, from which a piece of paper
falls to the floor. She picks it up and opens it
to a smile, and goes to Arvind and Archana to
show it to them. It is the drawing of Shambhit
she made in the auto / van. Arvind looks at the
sketch and turns it around to see the drawing
on the other side, and then looks back to
Gauri’s smiling face.
The newspaper article title reads (In hindi)

“Youth beaten up at bus stand. Suspected spy”.
***

03
Pre-Production
3.1 Film Language and treatment 46-47
Form of the film
Invisibility of camera and audience
Symmetry of Compositions
Sturdiness of the Tripod
Using the weather
3.2 The setting of the film : Bihar 48
The uniqueness of the Bihari setting
3.3 Casting 49
3.4 Locations 50
3.5 Workshop with school students 51
3.6 The drawing 52
3.1 Film Language and treatment
When beginning to think of the approach, my guide had Invisibility of the camera and the audience
suggested that I should keep away from any kind of
experimentations with eccentricity within the film language
The entire film is shot to stimulate the feeling that the
and treatment. I also believed that a ‘flashier’ edit or camera
audience is a by-stander to the entire sequence-of-events.
would have hampered instead of supporting the narrative
The film tries to not go into closeups of other character
of the film. One of the most important aspects of the film,
except the protagonists, and hence tries to maintain a
in my opinion, is its pace. I decided to keep the pace of the
distance from the entire narrative. This was also to support
film neutral, with time passing as in real life. The entire idea
the perspective of the child, who, because of her ignorance
was to mimic the pace of life that the characters in the film
of the matter, is not able to associate to the sequence of
feel.
events.
Form of the film
The final decision was to shoot the film in steady shots, Symmetry of compositions
with two special restrictions on the camera. The first was
that the camera would always be at the child’s eye level The compositions are kept clean and symmetrical, to
and from her physical position in relation to the other complement the pace of the film. All the shots are taken with
characters when it is depicting the central narrative. This the character most important to that shot taking up space
was done to add on to the feel of the film being through at the centre of the frame, or if there are two characters,
the child’s perspective. There were a few exceptions to this the frame is balanced between them. This, according to me,
rule, in establishment shots, and in parts of the film where leads to better disguising of the camera, and also brings
I digress from the central narrative. The second restriction the pace of the film down.
was to shoot at wide apertures to keep the depth of field at
its lowest, and always focus on the protagonist in a scene.
This was to visually represent the child’s ignorance of the
entirety of the situation. There are exceptions to this rule
also, but within the same situations as with the first rule.

Sturdiness of the Tripod
Before starting this film, I wanted to experiment with camera

movement and film narrative, especially non bound (hand
held but stabilised) camera work, which has become staple
treatment for many mainstream films and videos, and is
something we at NID are not exposed to a lot. But when
this script was finalised, I realised that camera movements
will just add extra ‘pace’ to the film, which the film doesn’t
need. So I decided to go with sturdy tripod shots, with an
occasional trolley track shot, where I wanted to follow a
particular character.
Using the weather (and failure involved)
The film was shot in late December, which is when winter

in Bihar is at its peak, and usually there is a lot of fog. I
had thought that the fog will add to the feel of the space,
and also work as a visual metaphor for how the central The film kept central and
character is not able to understand whatever is happening symmetrical compositions,
with still frames and minimal
clearly. But when the actual date of the shoot came, there movement of chatacters.
was no fog, and that was something I couldn’t afford to wait
for, so we had to work without the fog.

3.2 The setting of the film : Bihar
The Uniqueness of a Bihari setting Purely pragmatic reasons and its setbacks
Today, the imagination of Bihar in the national imagination The other reason, although being secondary but as
is of a people who are primarily poor, uncultured and important in terms of pragmatism, is that Patna is my city
lawless, further fuelled by Bollywood’s imagination of the of residence, and hence I could draw upon the abundant
gun-slinging, lawless, crass and swearing Bihari/UP hero/ resources that this provided, especially the ones without
anti-hero. It is an imagination that also influences the great cost. Although this proved to be very valuable in terms of
migrant population of Bihar, which has been forced to leave location and permissions, it was also a major setback.
their land to become the biggest section of the working
class throughout India. One of the biggest setbacks is that although Bihar has a
‘bhojpuri’ film industry based on one of its local tongues,
But this state, and its immediate neighbourhood, has and also has a local theatre scene, most of the actors pursue
been the centre of many empires of medieval India, and acting more as a hobby than as a serious profession, and
has been a major cultural and intellectual centre up until also most of them are used to, and are even trained, in acting
the 19th Century. It has contributed to the birth of three for theatre, and hence are exaggerated in their renditions
major religions of the world - namely Buddhism, Jainism even in front of the camera. This is not to say that Bihar
and Sikhism, and has housed the world’s first University hasn’t produced actors of merit, but in contemporary Bihar,
(Nalanda). But Bihar has seen a turbulent last century, most actors have moved to bigger cities and metropolises
especially in the last few decades, which have now left it in search of better work. This severely limits the number
with a major vacuum in terms of culture. I think as being from and range of actors one can get to play the characters, and
Bihar, it is my responsibility towards generating creative also one ends up needing to work a lot to get them to act
content that revolves around Bihar, and normalises, if not for films, especially in a treatment like the one I wanted,
celebrates, its context. where I was looking for more natural and subtle acting.

3.3 Casting
Casting was a major problem in Bihar. I had started the film

wanting to cast local actors, but most people I met, even
people who had worked in mainstream Bhojpuri/Hindi films,
had a background in classical theatre acting. This meant that
they would constantly exaggerate emotional intensity. This
works when the audience, as in a play, are seated far away.
However, this doesn’t work at all in a film, where the camera
(and hence the audience) is much closer to you. The second
major problem was a lack of exposure to certain narrative
treatments. Actors would not associate with the realism-
based approach that I was looking for in my film, and hence
will not be able to ‘add’ to the performance any of their own
creative energy. One of the main reasons according to me
is a lack of acting education, especially in Bihar.
One thing which helped me a lot was taking video recordings

of the auditions, which helped me better judge the acting
later when making the final decision. Video Recording in
auditions helps you
return to the person
later in a different space,
so you can compare
different actors and
make an impartial
judgement.

3.4 Locations
School: I was looking for a lower-middle-class school,

located at the outskirts of the city, which taught in English
but spoke in Hindi. The two schools I shortlisted after
looking at many was New Era Public School, Bihita and
Shoshit Samadan Kendra, Patna. Shoshit Samadhan Kendra
is a brilliant initiative by J. K. Sinha, a former intelligence
officer, and is a modest residential school for the Musahar
community in Bihar, who are one of the most downtrodden
dalit communities of India. Although using the school, and
promoting it in whatever way I could through my film was a
thought that did entice me, the setting and the kids did not
fit each other, and the school had the feel of being a ‘special’
school. New Era School had the feeling of the economic
class that I wanted, complete with the classrooms and the
walls, so we saved time and effort in production.
House: Dividing the outside and the inside into different

locations. The house that I had imagined was part of an old-
ish company colony, situated in a semi-urban landscape.
Such colonies have very interknitted lives, especially
because they belong to the same economic class. Their
children often go to the same schools, which is part of the
narrative. But in Patna most of these colonies have now
become part of the expansion of the city. When I went
looking for such a location towards the outskirts of the
city, the ‘oldness’ of the colonies vanished. So I decided to
break the location of the house into two; the inside and the
outside. Hence the outside shots are always looking away
from the house, and the inside shots are looking into the As my production budget was limited, I tried to look for locations
which were as close to what I wanted in the film as possible, so
house. that I would only have to add the finer details.

3.5 Workshop with school students
We took acting sessions with the children shortlisted for

the main roles instead of individual auditions to get the
children comfortable with each other as well as the camera.
We tried different combinations between the actors for
Aditya and Gauri, before finally settling down to the kids in
the film.
I took a two day workshop at the school before the shoot,

where we went in with the entire crew and interacted
with the kids, playing trust building exercises, along with
follow-the-leader based exercises which helped us identify
students who we then kept in the final film.
The workshop really helped with getting the crew

as well as the other children comfortable with each
other. As the child actors were not from the same
school, we got them along so that they can also
make friends in the new school, which would then
make them more comfortable in the new space,
and also helped us find people with who they were
more comfortable.

3.6 The Drawing
The drawing was a key element of the film,

and although the content of the drawing I
had thought out during the plot itself, but
the execution was important. Because the
drawing has such a pivotal role in the film, it’s
believability was crucial. I got the kids to draw
the cartoon out by themselves, which gave us a
lot of options, along with the added subtleties
that the kids added by themselves.

The drawing process by itself was
a brilliant experience. The kind of
drawings the kids made, and the
simplicity and brilliance of human
imagination that they reflected,
amazed me yet again and
reminded me of the great capacity
for creativity that the human mind
posesses.

04
Production
4.1 Equipment Used 56
4.2 Crew 56
4.3 Shoot Schedule 57
4.4 Production Stills 58 - 59
4.1 Equipment Used
Camera : I own a Nikon D810, which is what the entire film later in the learnings section.
is shot on, along with an Atomos Samurai Blade recorder,
which records uncompressed footage through HDMI right Lights: For soft daylight, to mimic winter light from the
from the camera’s sensor. This allowed me to shoot in windows, I used keno-flo lights, with 500 watt multi lights
ProRes LT, which gave me more leeway for colour correction for warm light sources in the indoor shoots, and 1000-2000
later in post-production. The camera is a full-frame DSLR, watt lights to mimic street lights in the outdoor shoots.
which shoots beautifully in fullHD.
Sound: The sound is where we encountered a major problem, 4.2 Crew

and is a learning which will remain with me. The idea was
to use a directional boom and lapel setup, especially
because the school had a lot of ambient noise. I already Rhea Mathews
own a wireless lapel (RodeLink digital wireless lapel), and a Assistant Direction
Zoom H5, which we had initially planned to use as the main
recorder, into which both the lapel and the boom will connect
to. When I was inquiring for a boom mic in Patna, I was told
Vishnu Vardhan Babu Ponna
that there is a Sennheiser Boom kit available, and so I didn’t
Sound Recordist
think much about it. Once my sound recordist arrived, we
went to check the equipment two days before the shoot,
and which is when I realised my mistake. The rental place
owned an omni mic, and had called it a directional mic! With Akkta Panwar
no more time, we were stuck at what to do. After asking for Production Head
alternatives, we found that the rental place had a Zoom H6
portable audio recorder, along with a Sennheiser wireless
lapel kit. We took both of these, and attached the H5 with a Pooja Vasu
shotgun attachment onto a monopod, and took the output Production Assistant
via 3.5mm to the wireless transmitter, which we attached
to the boom pole. The receiver to this was attached to the
Zoom H6 and hence we had a wireless boom mic! This set-
up had its problems though, which I will elaborate upon Sahil Nigam
Production Assistant

4.3 Shoot Schedule
We took acting sessions with the children shortlisted for DAY 21st Dec 22nd Dec 23rd Dec 24th Dec 25th Dec
the main roles instead of individual auditions to get the TIME (Wed) (Thurs) (Fri) (Sat) (Sun)
children comfortable with each other as well as the camera.
We tried different combinations between the actors for
Early Scene 10 Scene 7 Scene 1 +
Aditya and Gauri, before finally settling down to the kids in
Morning Scene 6
the film.
I took a two day workshop at the school before the shoot, Morning Scene 2 Scene 11 Scene 14 Scene 12
where we went in with the entire crew and interacted
with the kids, playing trust building exercises, along with
follow-the-leader based exercises which helped us identify Afternoon Scene 8 Scene 12 Scene 3
students who we then kept in the final film. (end) (end)
Location 1 : Gauri’s home (Indoors) Evening Scene 3 Scene 13 Scene 4
Location 2 : Gauri’s home (Outdoors)

Night Scene 5 Scene 9
Location 3 : School
Location 4 : School Van Location Location 3 Location 3 Location 1 Location 2

+Location 4
Characters Gauri Gauri Gauri Gauri

Tejas Tejas Aditya Aditya
Aditya Aditya Shambhit Shambhit
Shambhit Peon Aravind Aravind
Sinha Principal Archana Archana
Van + Ruffians Colony
Driver Auto Members

4.4 Production Stills
The shoot was a lot of fun. Although it was a little

mentally tiring for me, simply because it was my
first project at this scale, it went through smoothly
and without any major hiccups. Working with
a large group of very energetic kids was also a
brilliant, although difficult and testing, experience,,
but my crew handled it beautiully.

The end of every day of shoot comes with its own brilliant sense of accomplishment.
Now that the film is over, I feel a great sense of relief and gratitude towards everyone
who was a part of this project, and serves to remind me how a film is a combination of
people working in tandem, and that it is, almost always, a group effort.

05
Post-Production
5.1 Editing 62
Removing Kid’s Playing Scene
Writing radio News
5.2 Music 63-65
Music script
Working with music
5.1 Editing
Softwares Used: can be made to sound gradually, and especially under the
Premiere Pro CC 2017 guise of nationalism.
Adobe Audition CC 2017
Da Vinci Resolve Radio Script:
Removing the kids playing scene : When we shot the scene, NAMASTE DOSTON. AAJ KE THANDI SUBAH KO EK BAAR PHIR
and even later at the edit, I realised that the children playing AAPKE PAAS LAATE HUE AAPKI DOST SUJATA APKO HARDIK
scene did not fit into the film in terms of flow. The scene SUPRABHAT KEHTI HAI.
was written to establish the relationship between the two
kids, and also to have subtler references of the influence of AAJ KE SAMACHAAR KUCH IS PRAKAR HAIN. BHARAT KI UTTARI
nationalism on the kids, but when kept in the film it did not SARHAD PAR BADHTI GOLI-BAARI SE TANAO EK NAYI UNCHAI
work in that moment;  partly because of how it was staged, CHOO RAHI HAI. HUMAARE NIDAR PRADHAN MANTRI NE
and partly because of the acting, both of which were my SARHAD PE FIRING KI BADHTI GHATNAON PE DUSHMAN MULK
shortcomings, and hence I played around with the idea of KO EENT KA JAWAAB PATHAR SE DENE KA AASHWASAN DIYA.
dropping the scene altogether, which is the decision I made,
seeing that dropping the scene did not mess with the flow KAL BHARATIYA SENA NE 12 AATANKWADIYON KO MAAR
and sequence of events of the film. GIRAAYA LEKIN IS KOSHISH MAIN HUMAARI SENA KE 3 JAWAAN
SHAHEED HUE. HUM UNKI JABAAZI KO SALAAM KARTE HAIN.
Writing and recording the news on the radio : The radio along
with the TV were mediums of introducing a second level of AUR KHEL KI DUNIYA MAIN KAL BHARAT AUR WEST INDIES KE
meaning to the entire film, one which was subservient to the BEECH HUE CRICKET MATCH MAIN BHARAAT NE 6 WICKET SE
central narrative, but was more subversive in nature. The JEETTE HUE KHUD KO JAGAT KI MAHAANTAM TEAM KE ROOP
voice on the radio was written by my sister Subhashini, who MAIN STHAPIT KIYA.
works as a political activist in Delhi. The idea of the news
was to go from something which sounded every-day (with ISKE SAATH AAJ KE SAMACHAAR SAMAPT HUE. AB SUNTE HAIN
an obvious political and nationalist undercurrent) like the KUCH GEET...
news about the cricket match, to the army and its obvious
use in promoting the nationalist idea, to something as
absurd at discovering remnants of the pushpak viman. It is
a play as to how commonplace and acceptable an argument

5.2 Music
Music Script: (and innocence) to understand clearly what is happening,

and thus it doesn’t let the audience understand what is
02:34 – 2:50 (starting from Good Morning Sir by the kids): happening.
Title appears, along with the first instance of music. A short
piece, which is basically introducing the audience to the It is foreboding at first, and gets more intense with the
music and setting the base emotion for the music to have a people getting more worked up. It quietens a little when the
reference point. father comes in, but increases in intensity and fear when
the police van shows up, gradually fading with the police
04:21 – 4:45 (kids drawing) pause (04:56-05:00) : In the first van leaving.
piece, the music is sort of a continuation of the last music.
Neutral. It’s the signifier of casual time passing. Sort of The important peaks in this is the foreboding with which
happy but more towards neutral. The music will bring the it starts (with the man calling out to the teacher), then the
attention to the kids and will have a pause (not abrupt, threat of calling the police, then the police van entering.
but natural) when the kids come to the teacher to show
the drawing. After the pause, when the camera is on the The cut at the moment is 2 mins 25 seconds, which will come
drawing which says ‘Mera Bharat Mahan’, there would be down to 1:25.
one piece (or chord or note), which will have a different,
more serious tone. Not too serious, but basically what will 15 seconds: Foreboding. This starts from the people calling
act as a premonition to what is to come after. the teacher out to talk and accuse him.
07:35 – 07:49 : Here the music is reflecting what the girl is 15 seconds: Tension rising. In the beginning of this piece the
feeling. It is a sense of mystery. The question is, where is man threatens to call the police, and the teacher calls the
the teacher taking the drawing? And why? father.
08:50 to 09:30 : This is a happy tune, light and subtle. Has a 25 seconds: Tension subsiding a little. This is where the
going back home after school feel. father comes to the gate, comes out and walks to the crowd
and tries to calm them down.
10:05 to 12:25: This part will be cut down to make it shorter.
Here music plays an important part, because it will drown 30 seconds: Tension rising with a hint of fear. This is where
out the dialogue. The music is acting as the girl’s inability the police van enters and takes the teacher. This piece

needs to end with a small pause and a separate note/ colony by ‘legal’ means and it is reflective of how society
chord/piece (like the 2nd piece of music) with which the clamps down on its own freedom under the pretext of
scene will transition into the next scene, where the door nationalism. In the end of the sequence, the father stands
opens. (One idea that I had was that maybe the police up for Shambhit and tells the colony residents that he’ll
van’s sound could be taken into the music piece as the put him up at his place. This is a valiant act, and the music
element of fear or disturbance? It could be mirrored later should reflect that, but it is not the primary emotion of the
in the scene before the stone is thrown). music.
13:12 – 13:38: This is where the teacher is coming to terms 19:11 – 20:20: Here, the system is working against the
with the reality of life. It’s a sad feeling, but should not be children. The school is targeting these kids because of their
confused with pity. It is important that the music should father’s support of the teacher. The music starts from the
empathise, not sympathise. I was thinking if the music girl’s reaction to when he says “bag ke saath”. The walk,
could begin right when he splashes water on his face the and the music, have to build up to the brother standing in
first time, so that there is a visual link to the music. Here front of the principal’s room, and the kids innocent silence
the music again will help the transition of the scene to the on the bike, along with the grim figure of their father who
next morning, so the same pause and note done earlier understands what is happening, and has to again end in the
will be nice. scene transition to the next day of them playing badminton.
I am not able to imagine the music, but the music’s work
16:14 – 16:28: This is when the girl decides to not turn in the here is to bring out and outline the subtler emotions being
paper. It is a sly move, where there is an emphasis on the felt by the characters.
close-up shot.
20:36: A very small piece/note/chord to introduce a sense
16:38 to 17:42: The music will be similar in texture to the of foreboding or disturbance caused by the entrance of the
sequence of the fight between the colony members and motorcycle and the two people on it.
Shambhit, where they call the police. This piece, however,
is not that turbulent but is more of being trapped. The 23:35 – 24:13: The music starts as the dialogue “Bachchon
music is also quieter than the police sequence, where it is ko kuch ho jaata toh” ends, underlining the helplessness
overpowering the dialogue. of that statement. This helplessness continues to when the
teacher walks into the room and packs his things as the
The colony people are trying to oust Shambhit from the kids watch, and ends in sadness as the outside shot of the

auto begins, leaving behind silence. scenes in which we can see the colony people getting
angry, the music and dialogue are kept disorienting, in part
End Theme : With the final theme, I think there could be to reflect the disoriented feeling that Gauri and Shambhit
more silence within the music itself. It’ll add to the ‘epilogue’ have, and in part to increase the dread that is gradually
feeling that the last sequence has, along with leaving the creeping up on them.
audience in a sad yet contemplative mood.
Working with music: Music Crew

Working with music was one of the biggest learnings that M S Krsna
I had on this film. When I was scripting, and later shooting Music
the film, I couldn’t imagine an approach for the music.
Hence when I reached the first cut, music was something
that I knew the film needed, and would add o the film, but Vedanth Bharadwaj
was also something that I had no idea how to approach till Banjo
that point.
How I then approched music was for it to be a separate

narrative by itself, and this narrative will take place in the Bindhumalini
silences that take place between happenings. The music Music Supervisor
will be the ‘emotional voice’ of the characters, where it’ll
underline the subtler emotions of the scene/character.
The primary reason for this approach was that, after the my
guide and other people saw the film, I got mixed reviews
about the acting of the cast. While for some it worked well,
others felt that it didn’t. The music therefore became a
seconday underline for any particular emotion in a scene.
There is one experiment with the soundscape, where the

06
Conclusion
6.1 Acknowledgement 68
6.2 Learnings 69
The Mic failure
The generator mistake
The idea of time
6.3 Musings on a Graduation Project 70

6.1 Acknowledgement
Project Guide
Principal Faculty and currently Discipline Lead
of Film & Video Communication department
at NID, Prof Arun Gupta has taught various
filmmaking courses (including Direction,
Scriptwriting, Film Language and Film
Appreciation) for more than two decades, at
NID and elsewhere. He has a post-graduate
diploma in Film Direction from FTII, Pune and
a BA in English Literature from the University
of Delhi. He has had a long stint in Indian
television before joining full-time teaching at
NID.
He has served as Jury in several International

Film Festivals, runs a biennial Asian Short
& Documentary Film Festival at NID called
Alpavirama and has been writing a book on
Hindi Film Villains. He believes that the soul
Arun Gupta
of India/South Asia resides in its syncretic
Coordinator, traditions and practices, and they need to be
Film and Video Communication more robustly celebrated in the times that
are.

6.2 Learnings
Mic failure The generator mistake
When I was inquiring for a boom mic in Patna, I was told The last day of shoot, the location where we were shooting
that there is a Sennheiser Boom kit available, and so I didn’t did not have enough voltage for lights, so I had to order
think much about it. Once my sound recordist arrived, we a generator. There were two options, one was a regular
went to check the equipment two days before the shoot, generator and the other a silent generator, but the silent
and which is when I realised my mistake. The rental place generator was four times the price. At that moment, maybe
owned an omni mic, and had called it a directional mic! With because of my own miserly disposition, ordered the regular
no more time, we were stuck at what to do. After asking for one. Although we kept the generator at a distance, the
alternatives, we found that the rental place had a Zoom H6 sound ended up ruining audio on many of the outdoor
portable audio recorder, along with a Sennheiser wireless shots. It was a big learning as to the balance of money vs
lapel kit. We took both of these, and attached the H5 with a the value of the extra money in terms of the final film.
shotgun attachment onto a monopod, and took the output
via 3.5mm to the wireless transmitter, which we attached The idea of time
to the boom pole. The receiver to this was attached to the
Zoom H6 and hence we had a wireless boom mic.
The other great learning, at least according to me, was the
relation between time, money and quality. These three
The major failure in this setup was discovered once the
aspects are super important, and their balance is crucial
film went to edit. Because we were using the recorder as
for the film. In this film we shot for four days, and because
the mic, there were actually two pre-amps in the chain,
we were paying the actors and also the lights were hired, it
which led to the noise-floor in the final recording being too
was getting very expensive for a day’s shoot, at least in our
high. The other problem was that at times the levels would
budget, and so I arranged the shoot so that we can finish
peak on the recorder that we were using as a boom, but we
in 4 days. The major problem was the fact that, because
wouldn’t be able to see it in the second recorder, and even
of the fact that everything was chargable daily, increasing
if we could hear it, we couldn’t control it, which negated the
the shooting time was not a financially viable option. This
entire setup.
led me to hurry through the shoot because the thought of
extending the shoot by even a day was something that I
didn’t/couldn’t entertain. Although I tried my best not to let
this get in the way of the quality of the film, I realised later
that the added pressure does show in the end product.
6.3 Musings on a Graduation Project
This Graduation Project is the third Fiction film that I have than from a human element, which I think is a drawback of
made by myself, and with each I have had my share of how I approach writing a story, and then subsequently that
learnings. I don’t feel that Mahaantam is the best film that feeling is transferred in the final film. I have often received
I could have made. The mistakes that I made glare at me feedback that people ‘liked’ the film, but there is ‘something
through the screen every time I sit to edit. It is, at least missing’ that they can’t put their finger on. The film, like my
for me, a slow form of torture to see my own mistakes/ last fiction Abhinay, suffers from this lack of a ‘soul’.
miscalculations within the film, and try my best to save it
as much as I can. At the end of it, all I can do is re-look This is a constant battle that I go through; the balance
and re-think my own decisions, and the cause and effect between the mind and how to think of a film, and the heart
relationships which led to those decisions. and how to feel a film. Maybe the problem also lies with my
writing, as both my films I had written myself. Because of
One of my biggest learnings, and also one of my largest this I want to adapt someone else’s story for my next film,
drawbacks as a filmmaker, is that I try to do everything which will hopefully tell me more about getting over this
myself. Because of this, the mental peace and freedom one block.
needs to concentrate purely on the aesthetics (both visual
and contextual) gets compromised, which leads to a dip in As for this film, with every film and whatever I learn from it, I
quality. The second big learning is that I did not verify my can’t help but feel that the amount of time that one spends
experiments with what people have done in the past. My in making a film is too long a time to justify the learnings
approach of keeping the camera with Gauri throughout the that I get from it. The end product of the film remains a
movie actually didn’t work out as I had anticipated, and this reminder of the mistakes and failures made, and you go
was something that I could have seen in action in other films onto the next one hoping that this will be a ‘perfect’ film,
and then taken the creative decision, which I didn’t, maybe and finally you’ll attain catharsis.
because I didn’t want to be influenced, or maybe because I
thought I would feel intimidated. Whatever be the reason, I It is, of course, a pain. But then, it’s also a process of pure
can see now that it would have been a big help, and I hope creation, and what better pain than that?
to not make the same mistake again.
In the end, I believe the film doesn’t work at the primary Thank you for going through this document, and for
level of being associative. The characters and their (hopefully) watching Mahaantam. I hope you liked it.
interactions constantly feel like driven intellectually rather

Ye dagh dagh ujala ye shab-gazida sahar
wo intizar tha jis ka ye wo sahar to nahin
ye wo sahar to nahin jis ki aarzu le kar
chale the yar ki mil jaegi kahin na kahin
falak ke dasht mein taron ki aakhiri manzil
kahin to hoga shab-e-sust-mauj ka sahil
kahin to ja ke rukega safina-e-gham-e-dil
Faiz Ahmad Faiz / Subh-e-azaadi

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DEGREE PROJECT

Sponsor : Self Sponsored

STUDENT : SHRIDHAR SUDHIR

PROGRAMME : Masters of Design (M. Des)

GUIDE : ARUN GUPTA

National Institute of Design

Degree of the National Institute of Design

*Subsequent remarks regarding fulfilling the requirements :

Activity Chairperson, Education

Masters of design, Film and Video Communication, 2014 - 2017

No part of this document will be reproduced or

All the illustrations and photographs in this document

Edited and designed by :

Printed Digitally in Ahmedabad, India

4 SHRIDHAR SUDHIR / M. DES. / FILM AND VIDEO COMMUNICATION

Student Name in Full: Shridhar Sudhir

Student Name in Full: Shridhar Sudhir

GRADUATION PROJECT / MAHAANTAM 5

GRADUATION PROJECT / MAHAANTAM 9

Directed, shot and edited by Music Supervisor Colony Residents Drawings

GRADUATION PROJECT / MAHAANTAM 11

Introduction 01 Conceptualization 02 Pre-Production 03

The gender question Using the weather

12 SHRIDHAR SUDHIR / M. DES. / FILM AND VIDEO COMMUNICATION

GRADUATION PROJECT / MAHAANTAM 13

GRADUATION PROJECT / MAHAANTAM 15

16 SHRIDHAR SUDHIR / M. DES. / FILM AND VIDEO COMMUNICATION

I have always sided with the experimental (maybe

18 SHRIDHAR SUDHIR / M. DES. / FILM AND VIDEO COMMUNICATION

GRADUATION PROJECT / MAHAANTAM 19

example let’s say farmers, and most films revolve around

The reality of things as I see them is that mainstream

20 SHRIDHAR SUDHIR / M. DES. / FILM AND VIDEO COMMUNICATION

Even after coming to the basic plot of Mahaantam, I still

The greatest uncertainty comes from the decision of being

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The other aspect was the hangover of my last documentary.

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I think the greatest limitation of a documentary is luck.

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Looking at the plot, and asking these questions, led to the

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30 SHRIDHAR SUDHIR / M. DES. / FILM AND VIDEO COMMUNICATION

After college he decided to come back

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CHARACTERS: AUR UNCHAI CHOO RAHI HAI. HUMAARE NIDAR PRADHAN

Gauri’s mother (ARCHANA 38 years old) wakes

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Bell rings for the first period to end, and SHAMBHIT

The two teachers sit in the front while all SINHA

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Then Shambhit leaves for his house which is ADITYA

SCENE 4 Gauri is playing dead when his brother steps

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Archana, Aditya and Gauri are sitting watching

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ASSEMBLY IN SESSION. SINHA

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