Best Screenplay in A Regional Film
Writing is the
essence of a film, the backbone, the building block from which the film is
made.
Writing is blah,
blah, BLAH!
Well if everyone
seems to think, note and most importantly WRITE that writing is the most
important thing in cinema; then it's high time writers got that sort of respect
in actuality rather than through empty words and gestures.
Whether it's
Hollywood or Bollywood or in between, writers deserve more damn respect and
more damn pay. Period.
So onto these five
individuals who deserve all the recognition coming their way.
The HIndie Award for
Best Screenplay in A Regional Film, and the nominees are…
Tushar Paranjape for
Killa
Basking in the
enlightening view of children and their simple moments of profound adventure
and growing pains. Killa takes us through the story of young boy Chinmay who
has recently lost his father and has moved to a new place with his struggling
widowed mother.
A new place means a
new school, and for Chinmay this means the troubles of fitting in and proving
oneself. Adventures abound and friendships formed and tested, Chinmay goes
through the usual. A taste structures and dealt with, with dexterity and
understanding by the writer. It's a simple event we all have passed through and
the writer handles it with honesty; which is all we ask for.
Paranjapee's sublime
screenplay carves a deep understanding of what it means to be young with
philosophical beauty.
M. Manikandan for
Kaaka Muttai
Chasing dreams and
the falsities of material aspects is what subtly, beautifully, sweetly but
never condescendingly, lies at the heart of Manikandan's feature debut.
Two young slum
dwelling boys are attracted by the opening of a new Pizza restaurant near their
slums, they decide they will make the required money to try and get a chance to
taste a slice.
Characters are the
soul of the film, we cheer as the two young brothers take each step closer to
accomplish their dreams. Even when the film goes overblown in its attempts to
text out the subtext of class divide and perceptions we are there; due to the two
boys [and the actors behind them].
Manikandan's writing
works intelligently, weaving us in and making us cheer for something we never
expected as the two boys realize; the Pizza sucks! It's that which
compartmentalizes the films narrative; it was just about a Pizza but also
enhance its richer themes even more so.
Chaitanya Tamhane
for Court
Grounding the
surreal absurdity of an unnecessary trial, Tamhane paints a distinctly
recognizable picture of the kind of extent the government will go to, to wipe
out the radicals calling out the name of development against the deep rooted
issues in society.
A docu drama
approach allows Tamhane to craft a narrative that free flows on its on but
always manages to echo a strong point of the economical and social breakdown of
the world we live in.
In Court; an upper
class Gujarati man can defend a Dalit poet and revolutionary, while faced off
against a middle class lawyer and housewife; both directed at a superstitious
Judge, between them on that social ladder.
All of them regardless of gender, caste, culture or anything coming
together in Court; where the judgment of the world should end but shockingly
doesn't.
It's the brilliant
absurdity of this film that makes you think without attaching us to an
emotional center, brilliantly absurd indeed!
Aditya Vikram
Sengupta for Asha Jaoar Majhe
Sengupta is at the
soul of his film, that's why as a true writer he is able to craft the film from
head up like a one man show.
Emotionally stirring
but effectively subtle, the screenplay is kept tight allowing for a straight
forward film with a precise rumination on the complexities of marriage and
straddling a house in harsh economical times.
I make it sound
really dramatic but it's not; the film in fact is poetry in motion, just so
hard to explain and definitely hard to write but written perfectly.
Joshy Mangalath for
Ottaal: The Trap
Taking a dry and
experiential approach to the writing; despite it's opening narrative flashback
set up. Ottaal is spent in its moments where young Kuttappayi is travelling the
village banks with his father, meeting his oddball friends from the old fisher
man to the light keeper at sea or more importantly a young boy from a higher
class.
Through Kuttappayi
the narrative explores ideas of class divide, growing up and the abject issue
of child labor.
Yet it never feels
like the film is treading such a dark and disturbing path, it's where the heart
hits then; becoming a documentation on the horrors that children face. It's not
a message film, it's a script film; where the plot truly hits hard by the emotional
connect it allows its characters to create with us.
And the Winner is…
Chaitanya Tamhane for Court!
So there's your
winner of the screenplay award, the men that make the film!
Up Next: The captain
of the ship and these five captains have kept their ships steady through some
raging storms...The HIndie Award for Best Director in A Regional Film!
'Nuff Said
Aneesh Raikundalia
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