<p>The irony is hard to miss. Forty-year-old Tamil film director, producer and screenwriter Bala Palanichamy is well known to the country as a brilliant and hard-hitting filmmaker through his dark masterpieces like Sethu, Nanda, Pithamagan and Naan Kadavul (which got him the National Film Award for best director).<br /><br /></p>.<p>The film that finally propels him to global repute turns out to be his latest one Paradesi, which dwells on British atrocities in pre-independence India, with the platform for global recognition raised by the London International Filmmaker Festival (LIFF), of all festivals.<br /><br />At the LIFF this year, Paradesi has bagged an amazing seven nominations (the most that any film has bagged at this festival): Best Film of the Festival (Bala), Best Foreign Language Feature Film (Bala), Best Director of a Foreign Film (Bala), Best Cinematography (Chezhiyan Ra), Best Music (G V Prakash Kumar), Best Lead Actor (Adharvaa Murali), and Best Costume Design (Poornima Ramaswamy). Paradesi also happens to be the first Indian film to get a nomination at this festival, considered to be among the best of world filmmakers’ festivals.<br /><br />Story behind the story<br /><br />Vagabond in its English avatar, Paradesi is a period film written and directed by Bala, based on real incidents which took place before independence in the 1930s, and set in the then Madras Presidency. It is a dark and a deftly plotted narrative of enslaved tea plantation workers in pre-independent India, which brings to our notice a torturous political narrative that included slavery and forced conversions of unread Indians by the British Raj. Paradesi is based on the 1969 novel Red Tea by Paul Harris Daniel, which in turn is based on Harris Daniel’s encounters with enslaved tea plantation workers in the Madras Presidency in colonial India. So… how did Bala choose this storyline?<br /><br />“Who doesn’t drink tea? Tea has become inseparable with life, with us as individuals, as with countries; when we are alone and when we come together; across strata and situations… but I wanted to bring to people’s attention the tragic stories buried in those tea plantations… of the pain that thousands of Indians went through in setting up these plantations,” says Bala. He adds, “I am a filmmaker, and the role I see for myself is to communicate what impacts me, and not in rendering advice. My audience are not my students; nor am I a worthy teacher who is perfect enough to dole out advice.” Well, that is pretty modest, coming from someone who has risen from humble beginnings in rural Tamil Nadu and made a name for himself as a mature, impeccable and one-of-his-kind filmmaker. “No, it is not about being modest by intention,” this down-to-earth director says, and elaborates, “Films are a product of so many people’s work; films also happen to be a progressive art that improves upon itself over time. I learnt from the films I watched; maybe, a few would learn from my films…I just do what I can. I don’t stake claim for greatness.”<br /><br />Reality bites<br /><br />Paradesi is not a feel-good film that concludes with an all-is-well-that-ends-well finale, like Slumdog Millionaire or the other Indian films that captured the attention of the world. Paradesi leaves you angry and horrified. But then, pathos is not a new element in Bala’s cinema. Most of Bala’s films end up breaking your heart towards the end. Why so much pathos? “Isn’t life like that for all of us? All of us are going to end up as food for nature’s mills,” he parries, but continues after a moment, “Perhaps, I have fallen into this mould... But my next film will be happier”.<br /><br />As for Paradesi, realism is etched in every frame of the film and extending to even the side actors, and of course its costume, music and backdrops, making the horror of the time all the more hard-hitting. For instance, 200 junior artistes had stayed bald all through the 200-day shoot of the film, as were the enslaved plantation workers in those times. While the realism of Bala’s cinema deserves praise, his success also lies in his making such reality cinema within the commercial film structure. And don’t forget, even while setting off a wave of change in Tamil cinema by daring to portray dark realities without sweeteners, Bala has given breaks to top Tamil film actors like Vikram (through Sethu) and Suriya (through Nanda). All this, from a man who is just a ‘communicator’.<br /></p>
<p>The irony is hard to miss. Forty-year-old Tamil film director, producer and screenwriter Bala Palanichamy is well known to the country as a brilliant and hard-hitting filmmaker through his dark masterpieces like Sethu, Nanda, Pithamagan and Naan Kadavul (which got him the National Film Award for best director).<br /><br /></p>.<p>The film that finally propels him to global repute turns out to be his latest one Paradesi, which dwells on British atrocities in pre-independence India, with the platform for global recognition raised by the London International Filmmaker Festival (LIFF), of all festivals.<br /><br />At the LIFF this year, Paradesi has bagged an amazing seven nominations (the most that any film has bagged at this festival): Best Film of the Festival (Bala), Best Foreign Language Feature Film (Bala), Best Director of a Foreign Film (Bala), Best Cinematography (Chezhiyan Ra), Best Music (G V Prakash Kumar), Best Lead Actor (Adharvaa Murali), and Best Costume Design (Poornima Ramaswamy). Paradesi also happens to be the first Indian film to get a nomination at this festival, considered to be among the best of world filmmakers’ festivals.<br /><br />Story behind the story<br /><br />Vagabond in its English avatar, Paradesi is a period film written and directed by Bala, based on real incidents which took place before independence in the 1930s, and set in the then Madras Presidency. It is a dark and a deftly plotted narrative of enslaved tea plantation workers in pre-independent India, which brings to our notice a torturous political narrative that included slavery and forced conversions of unread Indians by the British Raj. Paradesi is based on the 1969 novel Red Tea by Paul Harris Daniel, which in turn is based on Harris Daniel’s encounters with enslaved tea plantation workers in the Madras Presidency in colonial India. So… how did Bala choose this storyline?<br /><br />“Who doesn’t drink tea? Tea has become inseparable with life, with us as individuals, as with countries; when we are alone and when we come together; across strata and situations… but I wanted to bring to people’s attention the tragic stories buried in those tea plantations… of the pain that thousands of Indians went through in setting up these plantations,” says Bala. He adds, “I am a filmmaker, and the role I see for myself is to communicate what impacts me, and not in rendering advice. My audience are not my students; nor am I a worthy teacher who is perfect enough to dole out advice.” Well, that is pretty modest, coming from someone who has risen from humble beginnings in rural Tamil Nadu and made a name for himself as a mature, impeccable and one-of-his-kind filmmaker. “No, it is not about being modest by intention,” this down-to-earth director says, and elaborates, “Films are a product of so many people’s work; films also happen to be a progressive art that improves upon itself over time. I learnt from the films I watched; maybe, a few would learn from my films…I just do what I can. I don’t stake claim for greatness.”<br /><br />Reality bites<br /><br />Paradesi is not a feel-good film that concludes with an all-is-well-that-ends-well finale, like Slumdog Millionaire or the other Indian films that captured the attention of the world. Paradesi leaves you angry and horrified. But then, pathos is not a new element in Bala’s cinema. Most of Bala’s films end up breaking your heart towards the end. Why so much pathos? “Isn’t life like that for all of us? All of us are going to end up as food for nature’s mills,” he parries, but continues after a moment, “Perhaps, I have fallen into this mould... But my next film will be happier”.<br /><br />As for Paradesi, realism is etched in every frame of the film and extending to even the side actors, and of course its costume, music and backdrops, making the horror of the time all the more hard-hitting. For instance, 200 junior artistes had stayed bald all through the 200-day shoot of the film, as were the enslaved plantation workers in those times. While the realism of Bala’s cinema deserves praise, his success also lies in his making such reality cinema within the commercial film structure. And don’t forget, even while setting off a wave of change in Tamil cinema by daring to portray dark realities without sweeteners, Bala has given breaks to top Tamil film actors like Vikram (through Sethu) and Suriya (through Nanda). All this, from a man who is just a ‘communicator’.<br /></p>
