Shivam Harmalkar has been attending IFFI as a delegate since the age of 17 when he participated in the 72 Hours Challenge and won the Best Story award for his film, ‘Day 2’ about transgender issues. Since 2019, he has not missed a single edition of the festival and this year his film,’Savaat’ co-directed with his granduncle Santosh Shetkar has been selected in in the non-feature category under Indian Panorama section to be screened at the 55th International Film Festival of India in Goa, a huge achievement for a 22-year old.
“Saavat’ is a term meaning gloomy, grey, shady, shadow, representing the grayscale of humanity through four important characters in the film. The film is black and white and 31 minutes long,” says Shivam, a resident of Bicholim.
‘Saavat’ is set in a remote village. Shankar and Paro are a devoted couple with one cherished dream: to see their daughter, Priya, succeed in her education. Priya, who has ventured beyond the village to pursue her studies, symbolizes their hope for a brighter future. However, their lives are overshadowed by Bhatkar/ landlord who struggles with impotence, and his wife, Maya. When financial troubles threaten Priya's education, Shankar and Paro find themselves with no choice but to seek help from Bhatkar. He agrees to assist but imposes a chilling and morally challenging condition. As they grapple with this demand, the story delves into the depths of human endurance, exploring how far one will go to secure their dreams.
“I was looking out for stories and we wanted to make something that is very authentic. The story of the film is very grassroots and the concept is universal. I wanted to convey this through a regional cinema that is Konkani cinema. Most of the work was done in pre-production in about a month. We shot the whole film in three days. We had a cast and crew from various parts of Goa from extreme North to South Goa. My friends and I took out some money and started this film. The film was shot in different parts of Bicholim and Advalpal to show the rural life in Goa. I have seen all these places while growing up,” says Shivam, who has been working on documentary filmmaking for different NGOs. He completed his graduation in visual arts and photography from Symbiosis International University, Pune and has been engaged in photography for the last ten years. Recently, he got his photographs exhibited at an international exhibition
in London.
“Whenever I used to print photographs, it used to appear to be still photographs. But in a sequence, the pictures used to move in my head. It's more like when you place three stories of similar subject, it starts to make some sense in a sequence. I was around ten years old when my father got a small phone with a 0.2 megapixel camera on it. I started recording on it and made a small film with my friends and brother,” says Shivam, who after studying visual arts shared his passion with his mother’s uncle, Santosh Shetkar.
Originally from Ravan and based in Panjim, Santosh Shetkar is an award winning theatre director who has directed a lot of dramas for Kala Academy’s drama competitions. In the performance arts for the last 25 years, he did his diploma in theatre from the School of Drama of Kala Academy, Panjim and is currently working as a theatre teacher in Mushtifund High School and Rosary High School in Cujira. He started his career in movies as a film editor while learning from noted filmmaker, Dynanesh Moghe.
“Every human has a dark side in their life. All situations are not happy or not bright. Socially, we believe in caste and class and religion and ethics, but in a situation, everybody is compromising. That is the basic central idea of this story. When it comes to survival or happiness of the family, people compromise many things,”
explains Santosh.
Santosh used to attend IFFI as a delegate. “During the initial years when IFFI started, I was very much active. But in the last 5-6 years, I have not seen a single film. I promised myself that I will next attend IFFI when my film is selected for the festival. So this year, I will be attending. IFFI is a very good platform for beginners or people who are serious about filmmaking. I used to see good movies, even attend lectures. However, after that, there was no platform to execute it. It was a frustrating kind of situation. I used to feel like I could do it but I am not getting the chance or not the platform,” says Santosh.
Speaking about the cast and crew of the film, Shivam says, “We have the best actors performing in theatre as of now in this film. Mamta Shirodkar just won best actress in ‘A group’ drama competition at Kala Academy. I was blessed to have four experienced actors. The music is designed by Girish Vaze, who studied in the film school in Chennai, run by AR Rahman.”
What are their future plans, “We will definitely try to enroll into more competitions. I already have a few competitions on radar. That is the big issue for us. But now, because of the movie festivals which are happening all over the world, you can send any kind of language. There is no language bar for it now,” concludes Shivam.