Annanth Mahadevan’s Marathi film Mai Ghat: Crime No 103/2005 is competing for the coveted Golden Peacock at the ongoing International Film Festival of India (IFFI) 2019. It was screened to a packed house and Ananth said that crowd was silent after watching the film and for a change, the silence felt good. The Usha Jadhav and Suhasini Mulay-starrer is a true account of a mother’s long legal battle for her son, who dies in police custody.
Ananth, along with actors Usha, Suhasini and cinematographer Alphones Roy promoted their film through an interaction with the media.
He is happy that an international jury will be watching the film. “They will know that somewhere Indians think like this, and talk a global cinema language,” says he.
Thanking the director for offering her the film, award-winning actress Usha Jadhav said that in an actor’s life, they do not get to play many real-life characters. “The overall experience was great and emotionally draining. We are happy that the film is travelling all around the world and winning awards at various film festivals,” she said.
Suhasini, who is collaborating with Ananth for the second time, said that apart from knowing what he wants, Ananth has a lot of integrity. “That makes a huge difference on how the cast and crew reacts to the director. What I like about this film was that we were always pushed to underplay. It was interesting to see the communication between the director and cinematographer. He was not only clear about the performances, but also what the picture should be.”
This is not the first time Ananth has directed a biographical film. He has previously directed the National Award-winning film Mee Sindhutai Sapkal. When asked about his connection with biopics, he said, “It’s just a corrective measure that I am adopting because the films people are making in the name of biopics are not actually biopics. Biopics need a different approach because they need to be faithful to the real content and subject. Having said that, Mai Ghat is not a biopic. It’s based on a real incident that happened.”
Praising his producer Mohini Gupta, he said that she took 15 minutes to decide that she will back the film. “Unlike corporates, who take long time and even dictate how they want the film to be, she decided to be in on the film within 15 minutes. She refused to read the script in spite of me insisting. The amount of faith that she had in us, there was no way, I could let her down,’ he said.
As the conversation moved towards the content of independent cinema, Ananth believes that the 90s started corrupting the minds of audience. “If you go back in history, independent cinema was the one which existed. Film by Bimal Roy, Gulzar, or Basu Chatterjee co-existed with those by Naseer Hussain and Manmohan Desai. There was time when the audience was absolutely clear about what they wanted to watch. They would watch an Amar Akbar and Anthony and also watch Guddi. In the 90s and 2000s, independent films started going to the corporates. Today, if I ask for two crore, these corporates will refuse, but if I ask for 200 crore, they will give it to me. They would a expect a star to be cast and maximum returns. It’s all about figures and not quality anymore,” he said. He believes that cinema is not consumer product but a creative art. “unless you respect creativity, commerce will never follow. That could a reason why our cinema is one of the worst in the world. What have we done to ourselves? Where does the fault lie? It lies with the creators and the ones who consume it. We will continue drugging the audience with this kind of content in name of entertainment, and we will end up no where,” he added.
When asked about alternative platforms like Netflix and Amazon, where filmmakers can sell their films, he said, “I will use this medium as second resort. I believe in the old thinking that films are supposed to be seen in the theatres. I will wait till the film releases in the theatres and then sell it to the digital platforms.”
