“I was moved to tears when I first held the child in my hands for the shot and she looked at me. I was fulfilling a dream that would never materialise for me,” transperson Renju Renjimar sounds overwhelmed on the phone. Celebrity make-up artiste Renju was talking about acting in a Tamil music video, Marupiranthaal: Her Rebirth , which was screened at the recently concluded 12th International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala (IDSFFK).
In the video, directed by Adarsh N Krishna, she plays a transperson who raises a girl child abandoned on the road by her mother, an acid attack victim. “The project is close to my heart because I yearn for a child of my own; only if medical science had developed enough for a person like me to conceive a child! Of course, adoption is an option. But I am already 45 and I am not sure whether I will live long enough to see him or her grew up,” says Renju.
Her character is a sex worker and becoming a foster mother is a kind of rebirth for the protagonist. She faces many difficulties in bringing up the child but doesn’t give up at any point of time; at times when the girl is denied admission in school or when people misbehave with both of them, she fights for both of them to find their place in society. She eventually takes her daughter to a kalari so that she becomes physically strong enough to defend herself.
Renju Renjimar
Renju says that getting into the character had its difficulties. “I like to dress up but when the team insisted that they wanted no make-up at all for the character, it was not easy. It took sometime for me to look like the character. Many scenes were shot in a slum. That was a revelation for me because I saw for myself how many people managed to survive in adverse conditions,” she adds.
Double delight
This year’s IDSFFK was a double treat for Renju because Aham , a campus film in which she played the lead, was also screened at the fete. Directed by Sooraj S, it talked about transpersons’ fight for their rights, how much they have achieved over these years and the way ahead for them. “The story is told against the background of how transpersons now have the right to vote. Earlier when I used to exercise my franchise, I had to stand in the queue along with men of my family although I wanted to be in a women’s queue. Eventually, thanks to the new rules, I could fulfil that wish,” she says.
Renju has acted in films such as Poomaram, Diwanjimoola Grand Prix, Angane Njaanum Premichu and upcoming movie Sakhavu Sethu.
Marupiranthaal: Her Rebirth will be released on YouTube next month. In the meantime, it is being screened at several national and international film festivals.
CREATIVE TEAM
Shani Hafees and her daughter Reyah Fatima Hafees have crooned the soulful song in Marupiranthaal: Her Rebirth, composed by Yeldho John. Shani has conceptualised, scripted, produced and co-directed the work.
Shani Hafees and her daughter Reyah Fatima Hafees
“I have been looking forward to doing a project with my daughter for many years. I didn’t want to do a lullaby though. I wanted to focus on women empowerment and that’s how I arrived at this subject,” says Shani, an Ayurveda doctor and entrepreneur, hailing from Punalur. Having known Adarsh for many years, she brought him on board as the director once the audio production was complete.
But why Tamil? “We both felt that the language could convey the story better than Malayalam,” says Adarsh, a native of Sooranad in Kollam. He has many short films and music videos to his credit. Shani adds, “We also wanted the song to reach out to more people.” The video was shot in Thenkasi, Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi.
Adarsh N Krishna
A trained Carnatic musician, Shani has brought out a poetry collection, The Last Autumn Leaf, and is a columnist. She has also co-produced a music album, Pennal, based on five stages of a woman’s life, with a predominantly women crew. ‘Balyam’, one of the songs in the album, sung by Sreya Jayadeep, has been released.
