Vaddis, a short film by enterprising young Goan, Vrushab Sansgiri has been selected to be showcased at the prestigious San Francisco’s LGBTQ+ Coming of age Short Film Festival 2018 from November 2-4.
The film incidentally was among the 100 short films shortlisted from 2000 entries that will showcase the creative credentials from short film-makers across 50 countries early November.
“I came across this website, Film Freeway which enlisted a lot of film festivals from around the world. I gave in six entries for areas that I liked. I received a reply on September 19 from the aforementioned festival within five days of sending in an entry,” stated Vrushab Sansgiri based in Mumbai.
Interestingly, the 22-year-old who hails from Margao did not shoot the film keeping this particular short film festival in mind. “I shot the film in Goa in Konkani from February 28 to March 2. It was part of my final year project for college and I had three other friends on board. Ribha Ghosh was the Associate Director, location/sound was handled by Vaishali Jain while Siddharth Salgaonkar was the boom operator. We were given a genre, ‘Coming of age’ and were given three monts’ time. The idea, script, shoot and edit were to be done by ourselves,” revealed the Srishti Institute of Art, Design & Technology, Bengaluru alumni.
“I wanted to work on a film that was around a mother and son relationship. But I felt there should be something more. Thus, I decided to portray a man in a homosexual relationship. I chose the topic as none of the others were enthused with the idea”, revealed the film-maker.
“Along with my father, I began to ideate further. We worked on the script, events that could occur. We decided on a birthday (Vaddis) and what things go around it. We ended on three main characters – a single mother, her homosexual son and his partner. It was a real creative challenge,” said Vrushab who directed the film apart from doing the cinematography and editing.
On choosing the characters, he already had his cousin Sahil Prabhudessai in mind from the outset who was very enthusiastic in acting. To play his mother, he decided on Anjali Panandikar as she had done a similar role in theatre. Dhruv Sincro, meanwhile he knew as an actor who is to feature in an upcoming full length Konkani feature film.
“Given the minimal time frame that we had to shoot a film, I had to bring the script to a certain level, shoot and edit, keep names as they are apart from Anjali (plays the role of Geeta), work more on the visuals rather than the directorial part,” stated Vrushab.
How did he prepare himself in molding his characters, Dhruv and Sahil into enacting roles of a gay relationship with each other? “There was not much that I had to give. Dhruv and Sahil were very enthusiastic about the shoot and they took it very professionally. So it was little from my side as far as making them enact the scene. It was all of them who got into the scene like just another straight guy/girl intimacy,” he disclosed.
Adding further he said, “I had done my research just to get a sense of a gay relationship but I treated the idea like a straight relationship. There are no clichés as far mannerisms were concerned, because end of the day it’s a relationship. Not an abnormal way of living. That was the idea, to keep it as authentic as possible.”
The making of ‘Vaddis’ has definitely changed Vrushab as a person and film-maker. “It has given me a better understanding on how to manage time and how to work with the actors. It helped me to realize how to approach and direct them, explore and try out as much as I can” disclosed the young director.
Talking about the film, he had this to say. “The major event of the film is Sahil’s birthday. He is an introvert and does not want to express himself. He has not told his single mother yet of his gay orientation. His mother is an outgoing woman and does not spend much time with her son. He wants to come out. He decides the best way to break the news to his mother on his sexuality was his forthcoming birthday. But his boyfriend (Dhruv) is not keen on a revelation. They indulge in a physical act when Sahil’s mother was not at home on the eve of his birthday. Things begin to change for the worse, when Sahil’s mother catches them in that phase and storms out of the house.”
What happens next is to be seen. Does Geeta, Sahil’s mom return home for her son’s birthday to celebrate? Does she let the previous day’s incident pass and reconcile to the fact that her son is gay? Vrushab declares he is first a cinematographer as it is his core area of interest. “I would like to explore cinematography first. In course of time, I will see to film-making as well, he concludes. The short film is produced by his parents, Mandovi and Harshad Sansgiri.
