Sabar Bonda, the debut feature film of young filmmaker Rohan Parashuram Kanawade, has made history by becoming the first-ever Marathi language film to premiere at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival, that will kick off on January 23. Poised to compete in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition, Sabar Bonda (meaning ‘cactus pears’) is also the only Indian feature film at Sundance this year and one among the 87 selected from 33 countries.
Touching upon powerful and poignant themes of sexuality, grief and identity, Sabar Bonda is based on Kanawade’s life experiences, including his own sexuality, his roots in a slum in Mumbai and the 10 days he spent in his native village mourning the demise of his father. Before heading off to Sundance, the filmmaker engaged in a chat with t2.
What does the honour of premiering at Sundance mean to you and to Sabar Bonda?
When I got to know about Sundance, I was almost shaking. As someone who has just started exploring filmmaking, to have my first feature (film) selected at Sundance is completely unexpected. I had always imagined what it would mean to have my work shown on such a prestigious platform, but when it happened, I couldn’t believe it! Even now, I feel it is a dream.
Sabar Bonda stems from the period when you were mourning the loss of your father. Is there anything specific about that time that spurred the idea of the film?
The first was that when it was time to cremate my father, some of my relatives said that since I wasn’t married, I couldn’t perform the rituals. I was the one who took care of my father through his illness, and at the time of cremating him, it was being discussed that I couldn’t do the rituals for him. My mother made sure eventually that I did. That was one thing that stayed on with me.
When I was in the village for those 10 days, random people would talk about my marriage... I didn’t even know them! I couldn’t process my grief properly because I would keep thinking: ‘Now who will come next and ask about marriage and how will I answer that question?’ Through this film, I wanted to reimagine that 10-day period and make it more tender and completely different from what I went through.
I also thought that using my experience and culture-specific customs would ground the story in our region, our soil. Also, we see most of our queer films having Western influences. I wanted to write a story that feels Indian.
Even while being specific to this soil, what is the universal aspect of this film that will appeal to international audiences?
The grief at the centre of the story makes it universal. Also, the parent-child bond... the way Anand (played by Bhushaan Manoj) connects with his mother during the period of grief is very universal. I have taken some of those moments from my life, my partner’s life. Also, the bond between the two men (Anand and Balya, played by Suraaj Suman) and their love is universal. Anyone in the world can connect to these emotions, feelings and moments.
Did you always want to name it Sabar Bonda?
Sabar Bonda was in the script since the beginning. For the international market, we had the English title, which is Arms of a Man. I always wanted to have a Marathi title and whenever I thought of the film, the image that first came to my mind was of sabar bonda (cactus pears). I always had the image of Anand eating that fruit. It is prickly outside, but the fruit is very pretty. It is sweet and tender and that is what the relationship between Anand and Balya is like. I felt the fruit represents them — their struggle, sweetness, tenderness....
Since it is inspired by your life, were there any no-go areas?
Whenever I watched queer films, I felt that they were quite removed from the reality of queer lives in India. I got in a good set of actors and they could understand what I needed. We haven’t used the word ‘gay’ in the film. That is because in all the interactions I have had with my mother and with other people on this subject, not once was the word used, but everyone understood what I meant.
We strived for simplicity. There are some hard truths that these characters speak. When we speak about those hard truths in real life, we don’t talk about them dramatically. When you talk about them normally and casually, that is when they hit you hard. We wanted that in this film.
I made sure I told my actors about my life, right from my childhood. It was necessary for them to know why we were making this film and making it in the way we are and why they need to act and speak in certain ways. Me opening up and being vulnerable to them was the key to getting this film made the way it is.
This is a rare Indian film that talks about a queer relationship in a rural setting and in a certain class of people. Most of our cinema, especially Hindi, looks at queer relationships in an urban milieu. How important was it for you to do that?
I am glad you asked this question. I have used my own socio-economic background and my memories of going to villages and spending time there. I come from a lower middle-class background — my dad was a driver and my mom a homemaker. I grew up in a small one-room home in the slums, and my mother still lives there.
As I told you, in whatever films I have watched so far, I never thought that this is the real life of a queer person that I was seeing on screen. That is why it was important for me to use my own background. Initially, when some people found out about my sexuality, they told me: ‘These things are not for us, these are for rich people’. I wanted to change that. When I worked as an interior designer, some of my colleagues would say it was a ‘Western concept’ and I would debate endlessly with them. This film addresses that misconception that so many people still have.
Besides the obvious challenges that making an independent film poses in India, what other hurdles did you have to counter?
The biggest challenge was in making the film. The day I wanted to tell this story, I knew that I needed to tell it in a certain way but I was aware that it would be hard to find collaborators. I was sure that this is the piece, this is the treatment, this is how we have to shoot it. We have not used any background music and we have no songs. I had a certain vision for the film and had to stay true to that.
What struck me about your film was the use of long silences and the camera deliberately lingering on a scene or subject. What is the story behind that?
I have used silences in my short films too, but in a different way. For me, silences are very interesting. In real life, we sometimes just stay silent and I attempt to create realism on screen. So silences are automatically part of that process for me.
I have created the world of this film through sound design and through silences, and I think those moments speak a lot more than having background music. I wrote the film in a way that the sound was incorporated into the script.
As a young boy growing up in a slum, what kind of impact did films have on you?
The kids in my lane didn’t step into a movie theatre before college, but my dad took us to the cinema when we were very young. My father had a deep love for films.
My first love was actually the projector. I was fascinated with how it made everything look so much bigger than our 12-inch TV at home. I told my dad that we should buy a projector! I always wanted to watch films in the bigger, larger-than-life format. Of course, that never happened. But whenever I went to the cinema, I always wondered if I could walk into the projector room.
Later, when I watched Jurassic Park, I fell in love with its sound. When I was in Class 10, I got interested in writing stories because there was a chapter in my Marathi book which was quite cinematic. I could visualise every scene from that chapter and that is when I started writing.
While working as an interior designer, one of my friends pushed me to make a short film for a competition. My colleagues and I shot a film in 2007 on a Nokia mobile phone. I enjoyed that process and made a few more. When my dad saw me spending more time exploring filmmaking, he was the first person to support me. That set off my filmmaking journey.
What is the way forward for Sabar Bonda?
The goal is to get the film in front of the larger audience and not just the festival audience. I have even made my short films with the vision that they will be watched on the big screen. The success of All We Imagine As Light and Girls Will Be Girls gives me hope that our film will be in front of an audience soon.