Sundari, living in a small village in Tamil Nadu, has a chance to get a loan and start a business. But what does she want to do — set up a petty shop in the village selling shampoo and toothpaste, start an idli stall, or make old-fashioned string purses to sell in the city, where they are a rage? One would not think much of such an issue, sitting comfortably in an Internet-equipped air-conditioned office space. But in the context of an ever-expanding global economy, women like Sundari are grappling with questions that don’t have easy or ready answers.
Meeting many such women during the course of her life and work, Chennai-based filmmaker Usha Rajeshwari decided to tell their story. The result is “Shakti Pirakkhudu”, a full length Tamil feature film that weaves in the subject of microfinance into a social drama, with elements of village politics, women’s empowerment, enterprise, all forming part of the jigsaw.
The film is slated for theatrical release soon, says the director, who has been making ads, corporate films and documentaries for the last 20 years. It was screened in Bangalore recently to an audience comprising film school students and NGOs.
A series of workshops with women brought out their stories, says Usha, to make sure that her story was on the right track. What started as a conversation between Tara Thiagarajan, chairperson of Madura Microfinance, later tied up with the non-profit Market Place Literacy for research, and Usha scripted the story. Usha even did a check after the film was made to see if women identified with it. Screenings in Madurai, Salem and Trichy had women relating to the character of the film.
Starting out as a training film for Madura Microfinance to address the problem of lack of business education and exposure to markets among rural women, the idea snowballed into something bigger. “My film is not just about a woman coming into her own. It’s about bringing her family to the fore; it’s never a ‘you or me’ situation for a woman,” says Usha. “There’s often a distancing between rural and urban and this film is an attempt to bridge that gap. Tamil Nadu is only a milieu I’ve used for the film. But the problems faced by Sundari in the film are generic and are faced by women even in urban India.”
What really motivates a corporate ad filmmaker to take up a subject like this? Usha says she was inspired by these women and has gained from them in her personal life. “I have a basic need to tell a story. When I was making films for the Bank of Madura, I have gone into the villages. I’ve seen these women grow from having Rs. 10 in hand to handling crores. I’ve seen powerful stories.” Microfinance is not about money; it’s about people, says Usha. “Why compartmentalise money? It’s part of every human transaction; but it does not negate the humanness.” She takes her point — that these women are inspirational — further and says that while she struggles to get her compound cleaned, these women, through formation of self help groups have been able to bring roads to their villages, bus service, a library in one case, and have managed to get illicit liquor banned.
Shot over 28 days with a budget of 40 lakh, the one-hour-45-minute film is set to go to the film festival circuit nationally and internationally. Most of the actors are from the Tamil film industry (with Devadarshini and Sashi in the lead) and many junior artists worked at lower remuneration for the cause of the film. Usha, and her cinematographer husband Anandh Thiagarajan, who together run Prakrithi Jiva Media, also waived off their professional charges.
