THURSDAY, JUNE 27, 2024
Dolcy D’Cruz
A film that was created in 60 hours is still creating a buzz
after more than a year. The cast and crew of the Konkani film, ‘Wagro’ feels
that it is unbelievable for the film to gain this stride of success. What’s
even more exciting is that it is the first Konkani film that will be screened at
three international film festivals within a week.
‘Wagro’ was created as a submission to the 60 hour Short
Filmmaking Competition organised by Ravindra Bhavan, Margao in collaboration
with Department of Information & Publicity in December 2021. The participating
team has to pick a topic from a choice of three and submit the completed film
for screening within 60 hours. The story, screenplay and direction of the short
film is by Sainath Uskaikar. Sainath roped in his friends, who were also Lalit
Kala Kendra actors, Sobita Kudtarkar, Shravan Fondekar, Pranav Tengse and Amodi
Sanap. The background music by Abhishek Kadam.
Sainath is currently based in Pune for a one year course at
the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII). “This is my last month in college
and I am working on my final project which requires two or three days more for
editing and sound and the film will be ready for screening,” says Sainath, who
previous completed three short films, ‘Posko’, ‘Gotho’ and ‘Konso’ as part of
the
college project.
‘Wagro’ was his last project in Goa before he moved to Pune
for his one year course in direction at FTII. Born and brought up in Merces,
Sainath currently resides with his mother, Sukanya and grandmother, Sunila in
Porvorim. A close knit family, he gives credit to the two strong women in his
life that push him to work hard.
A graduate in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering
from Goa Engineering College, Farmagudi, Sainath completed only a month in Tata
Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, when he learnt about being shortlisted
for the year long course at FTII. He couldn’t afford giving up on his passion
turning into his profession and he immediately joined the course. However,
another important factor that brought this engineering student closer to the
arts was his work experience at Museum of Goa, under the guidance of Subodh
Kerkar, founder of Museum of Goa.
“Subodh Kerkar’s energy inspires me. He might be in his
early 60s but he is so enthusiastic about his projects. He introduced me to the
world of contemporary art and I was working closely with him on a video art
project. During my two years of working at MOG, I was introduced to Apurva
Asrani, who edited the Hindi film, ‘Satya’ at the age of 19. Now, settled in
Goa, he is a brilliant screenwriter and editor and I assisted him. Even during
college, I had directed short films for different competitions but ‘Wagro’ is
my first short film that has made it to different festivals and multiple
screenings,” says Sainath.
The ten minutes film follows a couple in a village and their
separation. It showcases how human deals with emotions as well as society.
“Cinematographer Amey Simepurushkar was my schoolmate while Editor Venkatesh
Lagji was my college mate. I knew my entire team very well and it is easy to
work according to our strengths. The only challenge was to shoot within that
time frame as Amey had a haldi and wedding shoot in those two days only. We had
to pick one base and the script required a village. We shot the film in Surla,
Sanquelim in the home of Shravan. We shot after the haldi ceremony and before
Amey could leave for the wedding shoot by 10 am. The scenes turned out great as
we got the morning mist in the film, the mood of the early morning,” says
Sainath, about the film that won eight awards at the competition including best
film, best direction, best screenplay, best sound design, best cinematography,
best actor (Male) and (Female).
National award winning producer for ‘Kaajro’, Rajesh
Pednekar, was a judge at the competition and was extremely impressed by the
film and approached Sainath to produce it under his banner, de Goan Studio
headed by Rajesh R Pednekar and Gayatri Pednekar. “I saw a good cinematic
language, but it needed further excellence in terms of post-production. I got
the best technicians to work on the film. And also pushing the film to various
festivals using my network, making several critics, jurors, festival directors
and curators. It is a satisfying journey to success,” says Rajesh.
“It was a proud feeling for me that Rajesh wanted to produce
the film as he is a known name in the film industry and his films have won a
national award. He had four-time National Award winning sound designer
Bishwadeep Dipak Chatterjee and two-time Kerala State Award winner Liju
Prabhakar associated with the film as a colourist. Bishwadeep is also an FTII
graduate and a contemporary sound designer in Mumbai,”
adds Sainath.
Interestingly, the first international film festival that
‘Wagro’ was selected for was Cannes Film Festival. It was accepted at the Short
Film Corner, Festival de Cannes, 2022. “It was a fabulous journey as it was the
first time I was crossing the Indian order with an international visa. It was a
very gratifying moment as 60 hours of hard work gave me this wonderful
experience. I was 24 years old and must have been one of the youngest directors
to walk the red carpet. I met a lot of international actors, directors, film critics
and all had brilliant comments about the film,” explains Sainath.
Since then, the film has been to different short film
festivals and won accolades too. It was screened at the South Asian Short Film
Festival, Kolkata, Siliguri International Short Film Festival, West Bengal and
Northeast India International Film Festival in Kohima. It was also screened in
Goa in the Indian Panorama section for the International Film Festival of
India, Goa Marathi Film Festival and at the recently concluded Waves Short Film
Festival.
Within this week, the film created history by being the
first Konkani short film to be screened in three different continents. It was
screened in North America at the New York Indian Film Festival on May 13, in
Asia, at the Bengal International Short Film Festival on May 17 and in Africa,
at the Cap Spartel International film Festival at Tangier, Morocco on May 21.
“We are extremely happy and also delighted that a Goan film got selected and
won awards in several major film festivals around the world. Goan talent is
been appreciated worldwide and that’s our satisfaction. It’s also boost to make
better content driven films,” says Rajesh.
“I didn’t travel with the film but Aseem Chhabra, director
of the New York Indian Film Festival showered many praises on the film and said
that it was a classic example of telling visual story,” adds Sainath. “My dream
to direct my first feature film in Konkani and I hope to return soon to Goa
after gaining more experience in Mumbai to start working on the film,”
concludes Sainath on a positive note.
