Where’s the Kannada pride now, ‘Mithya’ filmmaker Sumanth Bhat asks

Bengaluru: The paradox is not lost on filmmaker Sumanth Bhat. His debut film Mithya, which has won accolades all around the world, touching hearts wherever it went, finally made it to the theatres in Karnataka, two years after it was made. And yet, despite the increasingly vocal ‘Kannada pride’ that is sweeping the state, rooting for its culture, language and what not, there are hardly any takers for Mithya – a slice of life served straight from a picturesque town in the hinterlands of Karnataka.

On a busy Sunday evening, in a mall filled with people in Bengaluru, only a handful trooped up to the top floor cinema to watch this underrated gem.

Bhat said he was quite prepared for this. Considering theatre going experience is very expensive right now, he said he was aware that people would rather spend it on a mainstream film.

“You might not like it as a filmmaker, but this is the reality, and you must work within this system. It does not mean you will not feel disheartened by it,” said Bhat to PTI.

Mithya is one of the many experiments that actor-producer Rakshit Shetty has been indulging in, in his quest to make “good Kannada content” available for a wider audience. Although it was ready in 2023, Shetty, whose Paramvah Studios produced the film, bid his time in releasing it. His strategy is simple enough: send it first to film festivals to build word-of-mouth credibility, and, when the swell of attention builds up strong enough, release the film in theatres.

Bhat, who pointed out that this is a journey that cannot happen in one film, is only glad that he is in a privileged circle of Kannada filmmakers who can hold on to their voice and vision.

“In my case, Rakshit believed in my film more than me. I remember asking him if he wanted me to make it more palatable. But he said it was perfect as it was,” said Bhat.

Mithya is not an easy film: it ventures too close to reality for comfort. It tells the story of a boy (played by Athish Shetty) struggling to come to terms with the deaths of his parents. That his mother may have killed his father before committing suicide is an emotional baggage that could drag even a grown man down.

For much of the film, we watch the boy whittle away at his restlessness until he reaches the core of his resentment – he blames his younger sister for triggering their parents’ domestic discord.

But Bhat, despite the debut director tag, deftly plays with darkness without letting it take over – only letting it in long enough for it to add interesting contours to his characters. Trepidation fills us, as the film inches towards the climax: we fear the worst. It is not because Bhat drums it up with dramatic music, but because deep down, we know what the character is going through is inherently human. Something that perhaps most of us can do when circumstances push us.

Bhat said the story came to him when he encountered two kids who lost their parents at an age when they cannot even understand the gravity of what had happened. Both the father and the son in him were curious to know how one could find closure in such circumstances.

Much later, as he was writing the script, Bhat said he went through many research papers, mostly from US and Europe, of specifically about kids who have been orphaned because parents committed suicide. Bhat said he realised if his lead character was at an age where he could tell between natural death and suicide, he could explore that sense of abandonment they tend to feel.

“That kind of opened a larger possibility for me. I also realised that there is no happy ending here. There’s only a beginning of acceptance,” said Bhat.

‘Mithya’ is also a revelation because the actors became the characters so seamlessly that it felt like we were peeking into the lives of the locals living in Udupi, where the film was set. Bhat said he got lucky specially with the kids playing the lead roles.

“Athish played a very small role in a web series that I was associated with. There is something very special about him,” said Bhat. Once Athish was stripped of his understanding of acting – which, Bhat said, was very mainstream, informed by the 15 or so films that he had acted in – he was ready to tackle Mithya.

Finding Vandana, Mithya’s sister, was more of a headache, said Bhat. “She was only a toddler but had some crucial scenes. So, good chemistry with Athish was very important. We finally roped in Athish’s brother, Avish, to play the girl, and he turned out to be incredible." Music too worked in favour of ‘Mithya’: without making much fuss, it propped up the story. It blended in for most part – gurgling of the water, whirring of the fan and the crackle of the fire holding forth rather than bombastic overtures. Locales too silently wrapped themselves around the narration, occasionally stepping away from the shadow of the story to shine – like when the camera pans around to show the gorgeous view from a lighthouse.

Bhat admits that in his second film he may not be as brave. But, even if given a choice again, ‘Mithya’ will still be the same, he said.

“It is a story that needs to be told the way it is told,” he added.