Madipu is all about faith, says director

MANGALURU: "'I was definitely not expecting to win a National Award for my directorial debut. But as a director, I was hoping against hope the film should get an award for its content and subject treatment,'' said Chethan Mundadi, whose first directorial venture Madipu (Spirit's Voice) won the National Film Award for Best Feature film in the regional languages.
Chethan, hailing from Belthangady taluk of Dakshina Kannada, is not new to the film industry.He was an art director earlier.
Madipu rests on the premise that belief or faith is stronger than religion or caste. The film focuses on Tulu culture especially 'Bhootharadhane' or 'Bhootha Kola' and the relationship between Hindus and Muslims.
The film revolves around a Muslim woman's search for her son, who was abandoned by her and has been raised by a Hindu family.
She is advised by one of her well-wishers to ask the deity (spirit) to help her get her lost son back. Incidentally, the son dons the role of a spirit as he is brought up by the family engaged in the tradition of spirit worship.
With the strong belief that she will get back the son she had lost 24 years ago, the woman travels all the way to the village. The rest of the film revolves around her search for the boy and the dilemma she encounters thereafter. Will the woman understand the spirit's words? Will the son recognize his mother and will society accept their relationship?
Interestingly, the idea for the story came about from Chethan's own predicament of being an atheist. "My father once saw me not offering obeisance to God. He then told me, 'the entire human life rests on faith. How do you know I am your father? Is it because your mother said so? When you can accept that I'm your father, why can't you accept that God exists?' This got me thinking. I also saw a Muslim doing 'Bhagavathike at a Yakshagana programme. We have the example of KJ Jesudas who visits Kollur temple to sing keerthans of Saraswatidevi, the goddess of knowledge, music and the arts. All these inspired me to make Madipu."
"I explained my line of thought to my friends Chethana Theerthahalli, Vinu Balenja, Dilwar Ramdurg, Jogi (Girish Rao Attavar), Nitin Kukkuvalli and the story was born,'' he said.
Chethan credits his artists and technicians for the laurels.