Last week, Newton and Sulemani Keeda director Amit Masurkar's film Sherni released to wide critical acclaim. The film set in the jungles of Madhya Pradesh, and starring Vidya Balan as a forest officer, may have invited comparisons to his National Award-winning Rajummar Rao-starrer for a similar setting, but Masurkar insists both films are poles apart.
In an exclusive interview, Masurkar talks about why he chose to view an environmental thriller through an empathetic lens and the use of satire to comment on bureaucracy and conservation. Edited excerpts below:
The character of Vidya Vincent is quite counterintuitive for a film titled Sherni. She is the tigress who slides under the layer of marshes, not eyeing to pounce on the prey, but as someone just trying to get by. What traits do you think she shares with her counterpart?
Sherni is the Persian-Hindi-Urdu word for tigress. For me and the writer of this film, Aastha Tiku, Sherni was always the tigress — the invisible heroine of the film. Vidya Vincent is an empathetic human being who understands that humans are part of nature, and to protect nature is to protect human lives. She is a listener, a learner, who believes that to make change, you need an entire community to work continuously, armed with knowledge and resources.
For an environmental thriller set in a jungle, Sherni is blissfully devoid of any creepy sound effects or sharp angles. Why did you consciously choose to steer clear of that approach?
We are used to seeing the jungle with a colonial lens — where it is shown as a dark, dangerous, and mysterious place. It was our conscious effort to look at the jungle with a native eye — as Mother Nature — accepting, open, warm, nurturing.
Which is why I collaborated with cinematographer Rakesh Haridas, who shoots nature and loves spending time in the jungles. The forest is a character here. Sound designer Anish John, along with scientific consultant Dr Ramzan Virani, made sure that the soundscape was authentic and rich to make the forest come alive on screen.
The lens on Sherni is refreshingly empathetic given the law of the land — survival of the fittest. The animals are tender and the physical attacks on humans are never shown. How do you explain this anti-Darwanian intervention?
Humans think they own this planet. Why Earth, there are some people who even want to colonize Mars. What would we have achieved by showing gruesome killings? These deaths happened as a result of deforestation and marginalisation, and we wanted to maintain the dignity of the people. We didn't want to use their deaths as a means to thrill or titillate the audience.
There is a hilarious yet telling chase sequence of Brijendra Kala's character in his office, which is like a maze of tree-like racks overflowing with branch-like dusty official files. How did you conceive this bureaucratic jungle?
Devika Dave, the production designer, made sure that the office looked like a jungle full of files on top of cupboards. The location was perfect, and of course in chase sequences, you have to give credit to the editor Dipika Kalra, and the music directors Benedict and Naren for making it exciting yet humourous.
The idea of masculinity for Sharat Saxena's character is confined to hunting down the already slim population of tigers. Through an elusive tigress and an unrelenting woman forest officer, was your focus also on underlining the female-male balance, along with the man-beast balance?
Vidya's character is a woman because the writer Aastha Tiku prefers to write stories with female protagonists. The film is not about the binary of man versus nature or man versus woman. It's a more complex narrative that works only if you look at the bigger picture. The film is about conservation, and there are various sub-plots that run through the film.
From Malayali Christians to Muslim do-gooders, you populate your film with communities underrepresented in Hindi cinema. But do you think there could have been a more vocal local voice in the film, like Anjali Patil's character in Newton?
There's Sampa Mandal, who plays Jyoti, the village council member who helps organise the search for the cubs and succeeds in finding them, even as Vidya's character has given up and typed her resignation letter. She's very vocal. And there are the other ladies who stand up to the landlord who scolds the forest guards for making announcements.
Speaking of Newton, how do you assess Vidya Vincent through the lens of 'the Newton law' — is she also held back because of the ghamand she has on her imanadari?
They are two different films and different worlds with different vibes. Newton was set over two days, and we were seeing it through the POV of one character. Sherni spans over a few months and has multiple perspectives, and therefore there was more room to explore the issue in depth. Vidya's character is more layered, experienced, and she's also more connected to the world around her.
Sherni is streaming on Amazon Prime Video India.
source
https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/sherni-director-amit-masurkar-deconstructs-the-vidya-balan-film-we-are-used-to-seeing-the-jungle-with-a-colonial-lens-9737801.html
