Natesh Hegde’s Vaghachipani (Tiger’s Pond), at the Berlin Film Festival, raises Kannada cinema’s international profile
Illustration/Uday Mohite
Natesh Hegde’s Vaghachipani (Tiger’s Pond, in Kannada), is selected in the Berlinale Film Festival’s Forum section for independent, more experimental features. Hegde’s is a precious voice in independent cinema, rooted in rural India, with keen observations of its dynamics between power and caste, as well as local myths. The film comes all guns blazing: it is an India-Singapore production, presented by Anurag Kashyap, with Creative Producer Jeremy Chua (of Potocol, Singapore, producer of Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell, winner of the Camera d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival), and French sales agent Loco Films attached. It is likely the first Kannada feature at the Berlinale, as the festival is called. All very impressive for a Kannada film, and for Hegde, a self-taught filmmaker based in Sirsi, a smallish town in Karnataka, son of an electrician, and who never went to film school.
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Hegde is one of Kannada cinema’s many gifted new voices, including Raj B Shetty (Garuda Gamana Vrishabha Vahana), Rishab Shetty (Kantara), Rakshit Shetty (Ulidavaru Kandanthe), Pawan Kumar (Lucia), Prithvi Konanur (Hadinelentu) and more.
Tiger’s Pond is Natesh Hegde’s second feature after the marvellous Pedro, that already alerted us to a well-crafted film of a director who boldly addressed village politics, religion, caste and extra-marital affairs. In Tiger’s Pond, Prabhu (Achyut Kumar) plays a village landlord who is determined to win the local elections, with the help of his loyal sidekick Malbari (Dileesh Pothan). But when the mute and mentally challenged, young cattle herding woman Pathi faces a horrific situation, and the landlord goes on the offensive, Basu (Gopal Hegde, Natesh’s real life dad, who was a magnificent actor in Pedro, and works in agriculture and as an electrician in real life) stands up to him. It is a story of the dark dynamics of power and caste, explored through mainly local actors, and Pothan, brilliant Malayalam director (Maheshinte Prathikaaram, Thondimuthalam Driksakshiyum, Joji) and actor (over 70 films, including Kumbalangi Nights). What’s more, Natesh also acts in the film, in a key role as Venkati, the landlord’s younger brother.
The direction is assured, revealing the dark heart of a seemingly peaceful, even religious village. Hegde totally gets that the hyperlocal is universal. The screenplay, also by Hegde and based on a story by Amaresh Nugadoni, has a good eye and ear for telling moments and details that reveal the larger picture. For instance, Venkati is an upright but deeply flawed, bumbling character: when a drowned man’s body is recovered, he covers his body in rice, believing that this can bring him back to life. Also, he loves and wants to marry Devaki, the low caste Malbari’s sister. When the mentally challenged Pathi (Sumitra), also a minor, is found pregnant—possibly by rape--the village police, of course, collude with the upper castes and try to arrest a small schoolboy instead—anyone will do. The scrawny, low caste but savvy Basu stops the cops, saying, “Arrest the real culprits. If you dare touch innocents, I’ll file an (caste) atrocity case against you.” This is a really powerful line not heard in India enough, where law and justice are rarely available for low castes and the poor.
This is a subject that Sandhya Suri also addresses in her Oscar shortlisted film Santosh. Prabhu is also worried that the low caste Basu may be a strong contender in the upcoming elections. Basu is also the only one who supports Venkati’s marriage with the low caste Devaki. He is the counterpoint of the low caste Malbari, an innocent who is willing to go to jail and take the rap for someone else’s crime, but even that is not enough: he is forced to commit a bigger, horrific crime to destroy evidence of the crime by an upper caste person. We hear a tiger’s roar and the village prays to a tiger god, but we never see the tiger, which remains an ominous, threatening presence: could it be a metaphor for caste?
Achyut Kumar and Dileesh Pothan are in fine form, and Natesh Hegde is good as well. Sumitra is excellent: we will remember her uncomprehending face for a long time. Vikas Urs’s cinematography –the film is superbly shot on 16mm--and Paresh Kamdar’s editing are effective. The producers are Anurag Kashyap, Ranjan Singh and Natesh Hegde; the film was also supported by Rishab Shetty. An important film, don’t miss 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
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