‘If a subject keeps me awake for a long time, then I work on it’

The stark emotions and poignancy captured in black and white visuals holds the viewer spellbound in the 12 minute film ‘Matitali Kusti’. Made by Prantik Deshmukh, a graduate from Department of Media & Communication Studies, Savitribai Phule Pune University, it recently won the National Award in Best Exploration/Adventure Film category. In January the film also got the Filmfare award in the non-fiction category.Currently researching for new subjects in his home district Yavatmal, Deshmukh told TOI, “I love to tell stories and found the lives of wrestlers of Chinchechi talim in Pune so akin to those of the farmers of my district. Both live and die by the soil and are perpetually on the brink of being wiped out.”
On Sunday, Deshmukh is being felicitated by Cine Montage on its 39th foundation day at the LAD College hall in Shankar Nagar.
Excerpts from an interview ...
Q. How did this film happen?
A. I had to make a film as part of my fourth semester individual project. When I was looking around for subjects I came in contact with pehelwans from Chinchechi talim which is a 234-year old akhara in Pune. I visited the akhara and saw their plight and how they were struggling in the soil like the farmers in my district which is known for the highest rate of farmer suicides. The wrestlers apply soil all over their bodies to toughen themselves just as farmers till the soils with bare hands to produce something out of it. I could connect the two as both the farmers and the wrestlers are struggling for help, recognition and patronage. The film is not exactly about wrestling as a sport. It is about the plight of those engaged in it and the extinction that is staring them in the face.
Q. How did you shoot this film?
A. It was shot it in digital format on mini cameras which belonged to my department. The music, cinematography, direction and editing has been done by me. I have used a trombone as the lead instrument and have shot the film in black and white and have taken shots in slow motion to bring out the pathos.
Q. So you are a musician too?
A. Besides being a storyteller I also paint, do music, have been a skater but being a shy person I have never done theatre. I owe it to my parents, both of whom are professors of English in Babaji Date Mahavidyalay for encouraging me to participate in co-curricular activities and for sending me to Nagpur and Amravati to take part in various competitions.
Q. Were you expecting these awards?
A. I don’t know but yes I had applied for them. I saw an audio-video of Amitabh Bachchan about Filmfare’s short film competition and submitted this film. There were 1400 entries but this film won in the non-fiction category. For the National awards too I had submitted the DVD to the directorate of film festival in Dec 2016. And though I had won the National Students Films award in 2013 for my short film ‘Autumn of Life’, these awards have been beyond imagination.
Q. Do you plan to pursue a career in filmmaking now?
A. I always wanted to tell stories through journalism or television. I research hard for my subjects as I should truly connect with them. If a subject keeps me awake for a long time then I work on it. I also believe that my story will decide the media for expressing it. I can pick either art, music or a camera to bring it out depending upon what suits it the most.
Q. But you did give the music in this film too?
A. Filmmaking is one medium which combines it all. College projects have a low budget and I had to do it all in that space. I want to have a say in all sections of filmmaking as only then can the underlying emotion or message come through. For Matitali Kusti, I composed the music first and kept on hearing it throughout the shooting as it kept me in the mood.
Q. What kind of reactions are you receiving post the awards?
A. I am in Yavatmal right now. It’s my professors who are getting all the reactions. But, yes, there was this wrestler who called me and wept saying that I had expressed his feeling as he too was so worried about what would happen to this genre. He thanked me for bringing this issue to the fore.