Living on your own terms

Illustration/Uday Mohite

First and last selfie. When noted Marathi film writer-director Sumitra Bhave passed away on April 19 at 78, of lung complications in Pune, Sunil Sukthankar, her co-director, partner and collaborator of 35 years, posted a photo of the two of them on Facebook, movingly titled ‘first and last selfie.' Their body of over 60 films, including about 16 features, shorts and telefilms, mainly on social and mental health issues, is an unparalleled contribution to Indian cinema, and Marathi cinema in particular. Rooted in the Marathi milieu, many of these are award-winning and internationally acclaimed films. The films include Doghi (Two Sisters, 1995), Dahavi Fa (10th F, 2002), Devrai (Sacred Grove, 2004), Kaasav (Turtle, National Award for Best Feature Film, 2016), Vaastupurush (Guardian Spirit of the House, 2002) and Astu (So Be It, 2013), the last two being my favourites. Bhave also gives voice to the unseen guru, Maai, in Chaitanya Tamhane's The Disciple, now on Netflix. Santosh Pathare is currently finishing his documentary on her, Sumitra Bhave: A Parallel Journey.

Bhave's contribution to the body of films by Indian women directors is also substantial, given a fairly bleak picture overall. Wikipedia lists about 160 Indian women directors; comprehensive, reliable surveys are hard to come by. Even Hollywood had just 10.6 per cent women directors in 2019. And while Bhave and Sukthankar's company Vichitra Nirmiti (Strange Productions) found it challenging to get wide theatrical release for their films, they did find receptive audiences in the festival and NGO/impact space. They were unstoppable. What's more, Bhave and Sukthankar are two fairly rare filmmakers, whom producers pursued to direct films. Something about which even Bollywood directors can only fantasise. Yeshwant Oak, former president of the Schizophrenia Awareness Association, produced two films by Bhave and Sukthankar - Devrai, on a young man battling schizophrenia, and Ek Cup Chya (A Cup of Tea) encouraging use of the Right to Information law, to demand accountability in governance.

Doghi is about how one of two sisters is forced into prostitution; Dahavi Fa is about a teacher and students rebelling against academic pressure; Devrai is a sensitive portrayal of a schizophrenic man; Kaasav is about a young man recovering from mental depression; Vaastupurush is about a woman holding together an unreliable family, while her son fulfils her dream of opening a medical centre in their village; and Astu is about the impact of Alzheimer's on the patient's family.

I was delighted to present Astu (So Be It) as part of the Women Directors Making Waves season of India on Film, a year-long programme of Indian and South Asian films at the British Film Institute, London, for which I was Guest Curator, in 2017. As a member of the National Film Award Jury in 2014, we also gave Astu two National Awards, for Best Dialogue to Sumitra Bhave and Best Supporting Actress to Amruta Subhash. Although technically modest, the film's narrative arc is breathtaking. It focusses on an ageing professor with Alzheimer's, who doesn't remember who he is, gets lost and is instinctively adopted by the nomadic mahout's family, of an elephant that he has followed. Astu makes a sophisticated connection between loss of memory and loss of identity and the aim of Hindu philosophy - dissolving one's identity into the absolute. Subhash's performance, and the Kannada lullabies Albyado nana kanda and Jo jo malagaiyya, will haunt you for years after.

With her background in social work, Bhave, and Sukthankar - originally Bhave's daughter Satee's friend - lived together and collaborated for over three decades, based in Pune. I have the impression that Pune is the seat of much social reform, liberal values and revolutions - including by Jyotiba Phule, Savitribai Phule, Dhondo Keshav Karve and Lokmanya Tilak, as well as modern Marathi experimental theatre, with a common pool of artists working in film. When you can make the films you want in Bollywood's own ‘home state', over 60 of them, always finding producers for your next, as well as appreciative audiences, and live the life you want, you can be deeply fulfilled even if Bollywood is nowhere in the picture. And that's something, isn't it?

Meenakshi Shedde is India and South Asia Delegate to the Berlin International Film Festival, National Award-winning critic, curator to festivals worldwide and journalist. Reach her at meenakshi.shedde@mid-day.com