Thithi , the Kannada film by Raam Reddy has created a record of sorts in the history of the 80-year-old Kannada film industry. Besides grabbing the Golden Leopard and the Swatch First Feature Film Award at the Locarno International Film Festival in August 2015, it has won awards in every international film festival’s competition section.
When his debut film bagged the two top awards at Locarno, Raam Reddy was not aware of the fact that he had won an honour that had eluded Kannada films for the last 43 years. After Samskara , directed by Pattabhirama Reddy , which bagged an award at Locarno, the oldest film festival in the world, now it is the turn of Thithi . Incidentally, both Thithi and Samskara explore death.
Thithi has become a star attraction in the festival. The bearded and bespectacled Raam is elated by the response the film has received so far. Thithi is also competing in the Asian Section of the BIFFes.The film opens with the death of 101-year old Gowda and revolves around three generations of the family that resides in a village near Mandya.
The characters of the film are non-professional villagers that provide an unparalleled authenticity for the film. Thithi forms a contrast between three generations of sons; two of these generations are driven by material desires and one appears to be free of desire. It is the contrast in characters that connected Raam to the film.
He stumbled upon the idea of making Thithi accidentally. Five years ago he went to Nodenkopplu village in K.R. Nagar taluk of Mandya district to meet his friend Ere Gowda, who is also the co-writer of the film. Being a writer, who has the novel It Rains in Maya to his credit, Raam fell in love with the place. It is the place which influenced Raam to attempt this debut film. Though Thithi is about the rituals performed after death, the film is really not about death. It formed a base on which life in the film is built, according to Raam.
Support from his friends Doron Tempert from Holland, John Zimmerman from the U.S. and Summin Park, a Korean American, brought the film to the international circuit.
“We are still working on the details of the release, as this film has no label. One of my goals from the beginning is to get rid of labelling for the film,” he says.Has the Locarno awards made any difference in his life? Raam replies in the affirmative. “The success of the film has drastically made a difference in my life. People are taking my work seriously and it will help in my future creative business prospects. It is an excellent gift in the beginning of my career,” he says. He adds that the movie is being viewed differently by people. Everyone connects with the universality of the characters.”
