Lefthanders’ anxieties focus of black comedy, says Samarth Kadkol

Samarth Kadkol, director of ‘Edagaiye Apaghatakke Karana’ speaks to Pranati A S about his film releasing next week

Actor Diganth Manchale’s next film Edagaiye Apaghatakke Karana is set to hit theatres next week. Directed by debutant Samarth Kadkol, it is billed as a black-comedy suspense thriller. It is about the problems faced by lefthanders in everyday life. 

Samarth’s assistant director once told him how the world is designed only for right handers. When Samarth looked up about this, he came across an interesting news story. It was about a mother’s complaint to a stationery brand about how her daughter who is lefthanded faces trouble using their products designed for righthanders. 

“That’s when I realised it is a serious issue. Upon delving further into it, I understood how everything is designed keeping only the majority righthanded population in mind — door latches, metro station gates and even stationery,” Samarth tells Showtime.

The film was conceived before the pandemic. It took them about four years to complete it.

The story unfolds over one night. It follows a lefthander who gets stuck in the righthanded world. Will he get out of that world safe and sound forms the plot of the story, according to Samarth. “There are two main characters in the film, both lefthanders. One is trying to adjust to the righthanders world while the other feels completely normal. The film explores what will happen when two such characters meet,” he adds. 

There is a common myth that lefthanders are unlucky. “We’re trying to break that myth. We have also been doing campaigns. Brands have started noticing it now. A helmet brand was the first one to notice and they even launched helmets for left handers.  It’s a small mechanism that had to be changed,” he shares. 

While researching, Samarth met many lefthanders who shared about how their parents tried to correct them to using their right hands. “This creates confusion in taking decisions as small as which hand they have to use to pick a water bottle,” he adds. 

Fourteen years after the hit film ‘Pancharangi’, Nidhi Subbaiah and Diganth will be seen together in ‘Edagaiye Apaghatakke Karana’. “I have been a huge fan of Diganth. Working with him was a fanboy moment for me,” he says. 

Samarth was also a part of the writing team of Rishab Shetty’s ‘Rudraprayag’ (2020). His film ‘Antagoni Shetty’ starring Rishab could not take off due to the Covid-19 pandemic.