Reeling under santosh

Chennai-based Santosh is today a filmmaker of international repute after his first film in English Beyond the Rains (2007) swept the critics off their feet and was also a commercial hit.
The film has won three major awards at the Houston Film Festival ��� Best Film, Best Cinematography and Best Music. Now, Santosh is back with his new film Tahaan. In an exclusive interview to CT, the charming cameraman gets talking
Are you going back to your favourite theme - terrorism- with Tahaan?
Tahaan is not really a film on terrorism.Still, since it���s set in Kashmir, it does have a few aspects of terrorism. In fact, the film has been given a ���U��� certificate. It is the fable-like journey of the eponymous eight-year-old, who seeks to find real purpose in his little world. But basically, it's about the journey of the boy who goes looking for his missing donkey. During this journey, there are so many things that happen to him as all kinds of characters come into his life.
Why did you choose Kashmir as the background?
The setting of the film is something that you can relate to because it is a place which is always in the news for conflicts and in today's world, it has a universal appeal.
Tell us about the experience of making Tashaan in Kashmir?
After 18 years, an Indian filmmaker has shot an entire feature film in Kashmir. It went off well; the security personnel were friendly with the villagers, who were curious. We let the peasants be a part of the unit, and invited women and children to participate and act in it too. It was winter. Hence, no one was working and we had large crowds. There was a lot of laughing and cheering, as they encouraged Purav, who plays the role of Tahaan, while he raced his donkey against the mules of Rahul Bose.
You have a wonderful cast...
We had actress Sarika, who plays a half-widow, and Anupam Kher plays a trader who crisscrosses dangerous mountains and the LOC. There are other actors like Rahul Bose, Victor Bannerjee, Rahul Khanna and a host of villagers from Dalsar and Pahalgam in Kashmir. All of them are my friends and they have the same kind of passion that I have for good cinema.
Tell us about the performance of the artistes.
I worked with Sarika for the first time. It was an absolute delight. When she mingled with the locals dressed in her Kashmiri phiran, it was really difficult to tell her apart from the She plays the role of a half-widow (a term used to refer to a woman whose husband is missing), who exhibits an inner strength and determination to support her family. Her performance is one of the highlights of the film.
Tell us something about the music...
Taufiq Qureshi is the movie���s composer, while the promotional song has been sung by Adnan Sami. We had a British crew for sync sound. Paul Shwartz recorded authentic folk and sufi songs, and instruments that were a part of this recording were later used by Taufiq to produce original Kashmiri music. He has used several instruments like Santoor, Rebab and Tumbaknari. Many local Kashmiri folk artistes have also sung in the film. The background score composed by Taufique in the film is fabulous. It is very Kashmiri and soothing to the ear.
How different is this film from your earlier films on terrorism ���Roja and Dil Se as cinematographer and The Terrorist as director?
Roja was quite an experience as it had a lot of newcomers like A R Rahman and Aravind Swamy. It was an interesting blend of cinema, patriotism and terrorism. The Terrorist dealt with the internal journey of a suicide bomber. Tahaan is a film inspired by a newspaper clipping.
As a sensitive filmmaker, do you feel the Indian government needs to rethink its Kashmir policy?
Like I said earlier, the people of Kashmir are an interesting lot, especially the children. What I found very interesting were the army camps having schools for the locals in an effort to educate them. And we had Anupam Kher, a Kashmiri who was completely at home with the locals, joking and chatting with them. They loved him. I do not want to comment on policy matters.
International critics have been raving about your first English film Before the Rains. Why is it yet to be screened in India?
Before the Rains has been released in the US and UK and it will soon be released in India too.
When are you doing another film with Mani Ratnam?
I have learned from every film and every director. But Mani is special and someone I really love working with. The last two films I worked for him, Dil Se and Iruvar got me national awards for the best cinematographer. My all-time favourite film of his is the classic Iruvar, which I think is his best work. I'm quite positive that sometime in the future, we will work together. Unfortunately, we don't know yet what this film is about or when it's going to happen.