Description
Can you Summarize the film’s theme / topic /format?
Sonsi (Shadow Bird)
Sonsi is my first film as a writer, director. Films have always been a refuge for me. I started watching cinema at a very early age and I inevitably felt at home watching films that had a unique way of telling a story. The form always intrigued me. I was drawn to folklores, oral tradition of story-telling, fantastical stories, science fiction and fables. This idea was germinating in my head for a really long time. In many ways it is me revisiting my childhood and all the influences and my collective memories of growing up. So I wove a fable of my own of a timeless world, of a mystic Indian village where it never stops raining, where you won’t see any human footprint except the four characters in the film.
I call this film a Film Fable. My effort was a create an experiential and immersive film that transports everyone to a time in your life where time moved slowly. It looks at memory of childhood and the fantastical and absurd tales our minds would weave about seemingly mundane events. I really very intuitively arrived at this form where poetry, images, memory, melancholia, senses, early morning dreams are explored through experimenting with time and space. References from my favourite authors, filmmakers, painters came in beautifully and found a special place in my first work. For example, the name of the bird ‘Sonsi’ comes from prominent Hindi writer, Vinod Kumar Shukl’sDeewar mein ek khidki rehti thi. The female protagonist in the novel is called ‘Sonsi’. I was struggling to find an apt name for the Shadow Bird till the night before the shoot. I wanted the name to be phonetic and not very deep and metaphorical. I was thinking on the lines of ‘the golden bird’ and then suddenly I remembered Sonsi from my most favourite novel and it was apt. I was glad that very organically the name came and I could give my little tribute to Shukl ji whose work has had a big impact on me. Andrei Tarkovasky’s cinema has always been very close to my heart and you will see the reflections of his language in my form.
Director Note ‘Why i made this film’?
Sonsi (Shadow Bird)
This idea was germinating in my head for a really long time. In many ways it is me revisiting my childhood and all the influences and my collective memories of growing up. So I wove a fable of my own, of a timeless world, of a mystic Indian village where it never stops raining, where you won’t see any human footprint except the four characters in the film.
I call this film a Film Fable. My effort was to create an experiential and immersive film that transports everyone to a time in your life where time moves slowly. It looks at memories of childhood and the fantastical and absurd tales our minds would weave about seemingly mundane events. I really intuitively arrived at this form where poetry, images, memory, melancholia, senses, early morning dreams are explored through experimenting with time and space.
A list of Awards the film has won at National & International Festivals:
- WINNER – BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY (Non Feature) – 67th National Film Awards
- WINNER – BEST FILM (Indian Competition) – BISFF Bengaluru International Short Film Festival 2021
- WINNER – BEST SHORT FILM – Lady Filmmakers Festival 2021
- NOMINEE – BEST SHORT FILM – NYIFF New York Indian Film Festival 2021
- NOMINEE – BEST SHORT FILM – NYIFF New York Indian Film Festival 2021
- OFFICIAL SELECTION – Montecatini International Short Film Festival 2021
- OFFICIAL SELECTION – IFFSA Toronto 2021
- OFFICIAL SELECTION – Vancouver International South Asian Film Festival 2021
- OFFICIAL SELECTION – Dharamshala International Film Festival