A close look at city's mall culture

PUNE: Pune girl Sukhada Gokhale-Bhonde, professor of film at the University of Central Florida, certainly has the Midas touch. Her thesis film, Dhyaas (longing) had won awards for the best direction and best film at Pune's Ice digital film festival and also bagged the best foreign film' award at the Trenton film festival in New Jersey, US in 2006. Her second film, The Hungry God' won the third prize at the Pulotsav film festival in Pune a few weeks ago and has been screened to critical acclaim in at least a dozen foreign film festivals.
But the articulate filmmaker is not resting on her laurels. She has finished shooting Maji Shala' a short film on the longing of underprivileged children for good schooling and has just completed shooting The Mall City', a 60-minute digital feature film on the growing mall culture in our country.
Alarmed by the sudden growth of the mall culture in her hometown, Sukhada observes, "People in Kothrud are actually dressing up to go to a McDonald's! It is both interesting and worrisome at the same time."
Says Sukhada, "Pune and India are going through interesting times. The IT boom has made people affluent. However, this fast paced consumerist society is isolating ageing pensioners. They have a fixed income and are actually feeling more lonely and insecure."
According to Sukhada, while the country embraces consumerism, it also needs to address basic issues like road infrastructure, good, clean public transport and footpaths. "I have made Mall City' to make people think and debate whether we are actually in the right direction."
In Mall city', produced by the city-based Indian Magic Eye, the protagonist is a poor boy called Omkar, who yearns to visit a mall. One day, Omkar runs away from home, but never quite makes it to the mall. The film is about the different kinds of people he meets along the way and the lessons of life that he learns from them.
Says Sukhada, "My job as a filmmaker is to simply trigger off a discussion. I was keen to document the rapid changes that are taking place in Pune owing to the mall culture. I am hoping the film will spark off a debate and find solutions."
According to Sukhada, except for Vibhavari Deshpande, the popular theatre actor, she has chosen all non-actors in the film. "Non-actors are extremely natural and bring spontaneity to their roles. Hence we have real life bhajiwallas' and even passers by facing the camera in this film."
Says Vibhavari Deshpande, "Sukhada is a non-conformist and has the courage to experiment. This gives the actors a lot of space and makes the entire experience very challenging and interesting. I had to constantly improvise, as I was acting with an entire team of non-actors."