Konkani film debuts child protagonist

BASIL SYLVESTER PINTO 

“The storyline has two families set in an idyllic village with their houses facing each other from across the road. Through the generations the families – a Hindu and the other Catholic have always maintained a rivalry. The current generation don’t know the origin of the age-old conflict yet carry forward the tradition,” reveals Narvekar, who has been a stage artiste for the last 25 years. 

The Best Actress for the 2005 film, Katyantle Ful, discloses that her maiden film has a competitiveness element attached to it and that has been maintained for several years however vague or comical it may appear. “The competition goes to the extent that when one family has made a certain purchase, the other wants to do so too. If one family wants to arrange a wedding from within their family, the other tries to do the same ahead of the other’s date. So much so, when a delivery is to take place in one family, the other family tries to ensure that the expecting mother delivers her baby on the same day as well. Even while celebrating their birthday, they try to ensure that one’s celebration is held before the other can have.  It is only the fathers of both the families who are responsible with the rivalry, while the kids and wives are good to each other. Both the kids who are central characters to the story are studying in the same school, and it is their respective fathers who bring in the competitiveness in them by trying to ensure that they drop their ward off first to school by speeding off in their two-wheeler. Each family enjoys the competitiveness it brings. But along the way, there comes a twist and everything changes,” the film-maker divulged. 

Putting across a crew was not much of a hassle for the new film-maker with her creative bent channelizing herself forward. “I have written and published seven dramas till date. There is always something or the other going on in my mind. I wanted to produce a film, and had the director and artistes in mind. I shared the idea for this film with them a year ago and they were like wow, this will click,” Narvekar recounted. Adding further she said, “While I started on the story, I contacted Swapnil Shetkar who apart from direction did the screenplay. He also roped in Ankit Keni to help him with the screenplay. When I approached Sai Panandikar with the story, he was impressed on hearing it and came on board for the dialogues apart from the lyrics.” 

With script in hand, they took auditions with kids being the main focus. They went to many schools to identify the characters of the story, and many parents came forward with their children too. Eventually from around 150 children, they settled for two of them, Chaitanya (Ribandar) and Ethan (Calvim). The criterion was that they had to be around six years of age, resemble their father and have certain traits.  

 The Hindu family has Vasudev (Rajdeep Naik) and Rewati (Reshma Naik) who are the parents of Krishna (Chaitanya), while Purshottam (Anil Raikar) enacts the role of Vasudev’s father. In the other family, a Catholic, Christopher (Anil Pednekar) and Mary (Antonet) are parents to Krish (Ethan). Christopher’s parents are Joao (Sharad Sakhardande) and Catherine (Gauri Kamat). Bunty Udelkar fits into the role of a drunken man. Spirit is the garbage collector that spreads awareness through segregation of waste. Spirit also is the messenger of the two families which integrally brings about a twist in the story. 

The two-hour Konkani film produced under the banner of Chetana Productions has Suchita Narvekar as the producer, who has also is credited with the concept and story. Also on the crew is Swapnil Shetkar with direction and screenplay, Ankit Keni with screenplay, Sai Panandikar with dialogues and lyrics, Vincent Jose with cinematography, Rohan Naik as music director and Satish Gaonkar as art director. 

The cast includes Rajdeep Naik, Anil Pednekar, Gauri Kamat, Anil Raikar, Reshma Naik, Antonet D’Sousa, Sharad Sakhardande, Bunty Udelkar, Spirit and child artistes, Chaitanya Sujoy Naik and Ethan D’Souza. Making a special appearance are Anthony San and Pupul. 

There are two songs, ‘Jivitachem Pikasanv Hishob Ghuspolo’ sung by Francis De Tuem featuring Bunty Udelkar, spirit among others, while the other is a sad song, ‘Kon Hanv Sodun Kadd’ depicting the frustration of the kids with Priyanka Raikar (Curchorem) lending her vocals. 

The former RJ disclosed that they did a recce across the State to find typical old Goan houses facing each other from across the road. Eventually, Rupesh Thanekar suggested Calvim as the best place for us. We visited the locale, spoke to the families concerned and they agreed. We did the full set-up, painting the houses the way we wanted while having 45 days with us for the two houses for the shoot. Without the families’ full support, it would not have been possible to complete the film. We also included the villagers with minor roles in the film,” she recounted. 

The shoot began in October 2017 but along the way came a few hiccups. “As the film for sync sound required silence, we had to postpone shoots whenever it rained. Another time, when our DOP collapsed on shoot, we had to summon an ambulance and call off shoot for two days. We also had to overcome financial problems,” revealed the film-maker on the difficulties faced in the making of the film. She also mentioned that the likes of MLA Pandurang Madkaikar, Dattaram Pednedkar, Rupesh Thanekar, Anand Panchwadkar among others pitched in with monetary support to complete the project. 

Unlike most other films, she reveals it is their conscious endeavour to take her film to the audience by going to far-reaching places in the villages to screen her maiden film. 

After the film premieres at Kala Academy, Panaji on Sunday, it will be screened across the length and breadth of the State.  On 28th it is slated to be released at the KTC stand, Valpoi, apart from Mardol and Ravindra Bhavan, Curchorem,  29th at Ravindra Bhavan, Sanquelim, 30th at Ravindra Bhavan, Margao.  Moving to October, it has screenings marked at Parra on the 4th and Rajiv Gandhi Kala Mandir, Ponda on the 13th. Apart from that, next month the film will also be shown at Inox and Zee Square across Goa. 

The social media promos of the film have had such a far-reaching effect that they are invited to showcase the film in London in November in Swindon, Brent, Southall and Hounslow. 

Seasoned actor, Rajdeep Naik who has worked in Home Sweet Home and Home Sweet Home 2 earlier reveals that he had to prepare well for his lead role. “I do not have kids of my own. I had to understand how to set myself as a father of a 6-7 years old child. I was with the kid to play my son for a week to build upon the chemistry,” he admitted. However he stated that had no problems whatsoever to essay the role of a husband to Reshma Naik as they completely understand each other having worked on stage for the last 18 years together. Similar was the case with Anil Pednekar, as he worked with him previously. Naik incidentally is part of the production team. 

“Questao De Confusao will reach to everyone’s heart. There is comedy with a social message of Swachh Bharat. There is something in it for everyone, so much so the entire family can sit and watch it together. For the very first time, the kids are the heroes in a Konkani film which has never been attempted before,” the film producer asserted.