What was a leisurely walk in Cubbon Park, one of the few places that still reminded filmmaker Indu Krishnan of the erstwhile Bengaluru, turned into a simmering idea for a documentary.
“Cubbon Park is one of the few places that feels like Bengaluru back in the day. When I walk in the park, I look at the people and the characters around. One day, I thought it was a cool idea to make a film on how the city has changed by following five people whose paths cross unbeknownst to them in Cubbon Park,” recalls Indu, who has worked with corporate and public television in the US and has independently produced/directed documentaries such as the mini-series The New Americans and Knowing her Place.
She holds a masters degree in Media Studies from the New School for Social Research in New York. She is the recipient of grants such as the Rockefeller Intercultural Fellowship; and media grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, ITVS, and New York State Council on the Arts.
“I planned to follow five different people, from the incredible cross-section of the city, from different walks of lives who come there. One of them was a boy, whom I would spot feeding monkeys every day in the park. There was something different about the way he fed them. It seemed to be more than a ritual, almost a sadhana (a spiritual practice).”
She then struck a conversation with him and discovered that he was a rag-picker or a ‘recycler’ as she likes to call those who are part of the profession.
“He told me that he wanted to make a film about Bengaluru. Everybody in Bengaluru wants to make a film, he was not alone in that. It was what I wanted as well and so I realized that our interests were aligned.”
At first, she began filming him with a mobile phone camera. By the time she came back from San Francisco (she divides her time between both cities), with a small camera, he had disappeared.
“As soon as I went back, I figured I didn’t have the resources to follow all these other lives and do them justice. I felt Zakhir’s story would meet almost all my wishes for what my film should be, which is to open up what Bengaluru is today,” she explains.
“I started wandering the streets, looking for him. I knew his routes and I went around asking about him. That’s when I found out that he was in jail for murder. I couldn’t believe it because he seemed to be so compassionate and caring. It then struck me that I didn’t know him at all. So I decided to find out more about who he was.”
Through her explorations, she realized that he would continue to languish in jail unless she bailed him out.
“In the meantime, he would also get more criminalised in the jail. I had to make a huge decision, crossing the boundaries of journalism, to bail him out. I also decided to help him make his film.”
Her documentary — Good Guy, Bad Guy — follows this storyline, of her journey with Zakhir and what happens with his script. The film was recently screened at the National Gallery of Modern Art.
“This is a multi-layered film containing narratives echoing the world of Bengaluru. Zakhir acts like a prism to all the different worlds he has to interface with and the levels of oppression he faces. He is a young man, living on the streets with very little education and a deep yearning to be a creative person,” explains Indu.
“In the middle, he is caught with criminals in an accident of fate, as a bystander (that’s his version, at least). Obviously, there is always this tension in the film around whether he actually committed the crime. At another level, you simply go along and are surprised at how you get drawn into him and his character.”
No matter the situation, observes Indu, Zakhir always wears a smile, which she perceives as a mask with which he’s learnt to live on the street.
“Those who have worked with street children say he’s a typical street child. They are resourceful in managing difficult, often dangerous situations. They have learnt to survive,” she points out.
“The film has very little to do with crime, it’s really more about a guy who gets caught up in a crime. It’s about his life and his world-view. This is not a generic story of rag pickers in Bengaluru. It’s about this special young man and my relationship with him. It is also very much a story about Bengaluru.”
Good Guy, Bad Guy will be screened on April 26 at 6 pm at Suchitra Cinema and Cultural Academy, 36, 9th Main, BV Karanth Road, Banashankari 2nd stage. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with actor/playwright Prakash Belawadi, writer Jogi, director Duniya Suri and writer Indira Chandrasekhar.
