INDIA’S LITTLE PEOPLE …
Director explores the social issues
For a week, acclaimed Indian director Kaushik Ganguly held workshops to help train the actors who would eventually go on to star in his film, Chotoder Chobi. They did not go well. Most had never acted before and most were little people. The majority of them had a deep sense of distrust when it came to the Indian film industry, which tended to use little people as comic relief if at all.
“The first seven days were miserable,” says Ganguly, on his cellphone from a remote shooting location in northern India. “They were tentative about what I was going to make. They thought it was another film where they would have to make funny gestures — all the comedy sequences that ( little people) are used for in film. What we decided, after seven days, was that we would not rehearse. We started going out together to restaurants. We started having lunch and spending time together. They realized we were not so bad. We had a different perspective about them. We are not embarrassed roaming around with them and we are not making fun of them. We built trust. Then we started to shoot the film.”
It resulted in the sort of naturalistic performances Ganguly was looking for, helping him present the lives and loves of his characters as “normal as can be.”
The film, which translates into A Short Story, is a Bengali drama that will close this year’s Hidden Gems Festival on Sunday. Initially, the story is set the world of circus performers, where little people are referred to as dwarfs or “jokers.” It examines the aftermath of an accident that leaves a veteran performer unable to take care of his family. When the circus refuses to properly compensate him, his friend Khoka ( Dulal Sarkar) helps the family cope, and he falls in love with the man’s daughter, who is also a little person.
Despite the circus backdrop and eventual love story, Chotoder Chobi has been praised in its home country for both its dark tone and social consciousness. According to Ganguly, India and other parts of Southern Asia remain unfriendly places for little people, where many are impoverished and ridiculed.
The director coaxed the largely non- professional actors in the cast into participating by telling them it was a unique chance to tell their story.
“I told them that this opportunity won’t come ( again),” he says. “The humiliation has been going on for centuries. It is the once chance in India to talk about your life, to say something bold. It’s not a film. It’s your life. It’s your story. You are representing hundreds of dwarfs. Take it seriously and do it.”
The pep talk worked. Chotoder Chobi has been a critical success in India, winning lead actor Dulal Sarkar a prestigious best actor award at the International Film Festival of India and Ganguly the Silver Lotus, which honours films that deal with social issues, at India’s National Film Awards.
One of India’s most prolific filmmakers, Ganguly says he attempts to have an underlying social message to many of his films. His 2010 film, Arekti Premer Golpo ( Just Another Love Story) broke ground in India by studying LGBT issues and presenting a romance involving a transgender character.
“I think we have some responsibility these days,” he says. “I was a teacher for eight years and that background has pushed me towards something that is not just entertainment. Cinema becomes more serious. It becomes a serious avenue for me.”