As a documentary filmmaker, Rajesh James looks for images and sounds, which always seem to him more meaningful than anything he can invent. Like every filmmaker in the genre, Rajesh strives to tell strong, character-driven stories with a narrative arc that attempts to keep the viewers engaged.
Like most youngsters bitten by the cinema bug, Rajesh ventured into making short films before he switched to ‘serious’ documentaries. Two of his films Dog Life (2011) and Zebra Lines (2014) were evidence of an discrete filmmaker. Rajesh found himself in the limelight with his third film Naked Wheels that won wide acclaim.
He is now ready with his new film and is also working on another collaborative project with Lucas Jedrzejak, a London-based Polish filmmaker. “We are still cracking our brains to get the perfect title for the new film, which is into its post-production. Initially, we thought of naming it Earth, Water, Fire and then Hives of Honey Bees , which is taken from Maya Angelou’s Phenomenal Woman . But we are still in search of one that will fit the bill,” says Rajesh, who is Assistant Professor, English & Film Studies, Sacred Heart College, Thevara.
The film, Rajesh elaborates, has been sequenced as a text with three chapters with a prologue and epilogue. “It tells the stories of three phenomenal women within the context of the Cochin Carnival. Seena C V, international footballer and coach, Celine, who works at the Thrikkakara crematorium, and Ammini Amma, a fisherwoman who is also a good singer of folk songs, are the three characters in my film. All of them have stories to tell. Stories of pain, struggles. The film will be ready this month and hopefully will be premièred at the International Film Festival of Shimla in August.”
Awards and recognition
Rajesh’s Naked Wheels was also screened at the Shimla festival in 2016 and then went on to wow audiences at various other prestigious festivals. The film won the Best Documentary award at the International Feminist Film Festival of Kerala, the Best Documentary and Short and Best Emerging Indian Filmmaker Award at the 8th Kashish International Queer Film Festival, Mumbai.
“The recognition for Naked Wheels has certainly made me more confident. That film was about the journey undertaken by a diverse group of people across South India in a truck. It sought to explore many compelling thoughts on life, love and gender. It featured two transgenders, Living Smile Vidya and Gee Imaan Semmalar, apart from Asokan, the lorry driver. The film has been widely perceived as something on the LGBTQ community, while what I meant to bring out is the politics of travelling together. It is perhaps a call for an inclusive world, a society where lives are not crushed and desire persecuted.”
In September, Rajesh and Lucas will embark on their new project, which is based on the fisherwomen of Dhanushkodi. “We have got a funding from a British agency. Lucas hopes to get the support of BBC too.”
Young filmmakers have constantly experimented with the medium. It is no longer the trend to make expository documentaries that speak directly to the viewer often in the form of a commentary with voice-over or titles. The fly-on-the-wall style where the film moves, not necessarily chronological in order, is in.
“The linear medium is preferred, the narrative style of unfolding a story. Here the viewer gets to experience in sequences that move forward in time. After all, real life also moves forward in time. My films are pre-scripted. And as in a dramatic feature the shots, scenes, and sequences gone on to convey narrative information.”
Rajesh thinks that some of today’s young feature filmmakers have extended the scope of documentaries. “Some of the recent Malayalam films, for instance, like Kammattipadam and Angamaly Diaries are feature films with a strong similarity to the documentary. They are brilliant films and so effective. Such films, I feel, have given a new perspective to the documentary. No longer can this genre stick to the formatted form.”
An avid traveller, Rajesh uses every invitation for his films as an opportunity to see places and make friends. “The music for Naked Wheels is by a Spanish friend, Angel Blanco, based at Barcelona. When the film was screened at Athens I travelled to meet him and spent some time there. Even otherwise I love to travel, my other passion perhaps. There are invitations from Seattle, Dallas and the New York Indian Film Festival for Naked Wheels . I now need to start making preparations for my debut trip to the United States,” says Rajesh.
