Actor-director Geetu Mohandas and her debut feature film Liar’s Dice are going places – literally. After premièring in the ‘World Cinema Dramatic Competition’ category at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival in Utah back in January, the film has travelled far on the festival circuit, being screened – at times in competition – at several major fetes across the world, most often than not, winning accolades for the cast and crew in the process. Then there are the two national awards that the film picked up this year, for best actress for Geethanjali Thapa, who played the protagonist, Kamala, in the film, and best cinematographer for Rajeev Ravi. No wonder Geetu is one happy camper.
“Half the time I don’t know where in world the film is being screened! In the past six months or so, Liar’s Dice has travelled to some 45-odd fetes in over 20 different countries,” gushes Geetu. “I feel really good, particularly about the national awards because it is important to my actors, both Geethanjali and Nawazuddin Siddiqui [who dons the role of Nawazuddin in the film]. The award has put Geethanjali, already well known in the international scene as a serious actress, on a platform for recognition and has increased her profile in the country. And my husband Rajeev, whose body of work is so diverse and spectacular, to have won his first national award for my film, is too good,” adds Geetu.
The actress, who debuted as a child artiste with Onnu Muthal Poojyam Vare and was a mainstream heroine in Malayalam and Tamil, turned director in 2009 with the award-winning Malayalam short film Kelkkunnundo? , a tale of globalisation and displacement told through the eyes of a visually impaired young girl. Liar’s Dice , meanwhile, is a road movie in Hindi on migrant labourers and their exploitation, which follows a worried young mother’s search for her missing husband. Like many fellow villagers from remote Chitkul village in the Indo-Tibetan border, Kamala’s husband Harud has gone off to work in Delhi’s construction industry.
Five months of no real information about him prompts Kamala and their three-year-old daughter, Manya (Manya Gupta), the family’s pet kid goat in tow, to set off for Delhi. Along the way they meet the misanthropic Nawazuddin, an army deserter, who agrees to accompany them on their journey – for a price. As the dice rolls in the gamble that they’ve taken, the line between the rescuer and the rescued soon blurs. “The socio-political condition of migrant labourers is a constant undercurrent in the narrative, but Liar’s Dice is essentially a love story between two unlikely individuals,” says Geetu.
As much as the journey from Chitkul’s barren landscape to Delhi teeming underbelly and from there to screens across the world was “incredible”, so too, says Geetu, was her journey as a filmmaker.
“Just because I am an insider in the industry, doesn’t mean I was handed everything on a platter. I had to knock on many doors to make my voice heard as a debutant filmmaker, as a woman. All the while I was active in the industry I was a keen observer, learning and teaching myself about its workings. Liar’s Dice took seven years to make solely because I was determined that I had to do my film my way. It was either that or the highway. Kelkunnundo? was incidental, a stepping stone to Liar’s Dice , really. I made the short only because I had to submit a work as a pre-requisite for the bi-annual Hubert Bals fund awarded by the International Film Festival of Rotterdam to 11 promising independent filmmakers from developing countries. That the short went on to have an incredible journey of its own came as a bonus,” explains Geetu.
The grant of EUR 10,000 became the seed money with which Geetu developed the script and locked the locations for Liar’s Dice . The movie was produced by Jar Pictures, in association with Geetu and Rajeev’s Unplugged.
“When applying for funding, it’s important to package a project well. We are not in the business of selling Indian exotica and you’ve got to get the message across that you are serious about your work. For example, before I submitted the proposal to Hubert Bals, I had an artist/illustrator draw paintings of the lead characters and the landscape of Chitkul, which gave the jury a visual framework to connect with. Then again, those who wish to become independent filmmakers should understand that the journey is not about instant gratification or quick money and fame. Instead, it’s a process that involves hard work and perseverance,” says the 33-year-old filmmaker and mother.
“I don’t know if such an attitude will work in the commercial space. I, for one, have been lucky that filmmaking is my passion, not my bread and butter. So, I have had the space to do what I wanted,” she adds, after a short pause.
Even as Liar’s Dice continues its roll on the international festival circuit and with its release in theatres across India scheduled for the end of the year, Geetu has already started working on the script of her second film, this time in Malayalam. “I’m continuing with the theme of travel and search for the film, which will go on floors in March. I’m very scared, to be honest. Most of the audience in Kerala know me just as an actress and have not seen my work. Will they accept me? Given the kind of films that they seem to accept of late, I have hope for my film too. Just like I believe in happy endings, I want to have a happy ending too.”
International flavour
A few of the fetes where Liar’s Dice has struck gold…
New York International Film Festival, New York
Sofia International Film Festival, Bulgaria
Women+ Film Voices Festival, Denver
Istanbul International Film Festival
Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles
Granada Cine del Sur Film Festival
International Film Festival of Rotterdam
