Shakti - The Power of Love

Jahnvi Pananchikal Jahnvi is a filmmaker and is the writer and director of this film. She has over 7 years of experience in creative writing, and 3 in directing. Her screenplay, Last Night, was selected in Screen Craft and Chicago Film Fund, and won the San Francisco Arthouse Festival. She is an alumna of one of 18 United World Colleges (Norway campus).

***THE SHORT FILM PROJECT***

NOTE OF INTENTION

Evolution takes time, and I see this film as a part of it. I want those Indian girls to be born. I want women to be proud of Shakti for speaking up and choosing her daughter. I want women and girls to feel wanted and to think.

And I can truly see Rajasthani girls feeling seen when they watch Shakti. And that’s because I’m one of them and I’m in awe of my character. So are my leading, established actresses, Sandhya Mridul and Natasha Rastogi. They are Rajasthani women who play the protagonist and the nurse in the film.

As my team and I enter into the production phase, I hope that we are able to balance humility with liberty and acceptance with making daring choices. Shakti will be filmed in Delhi in August. We foresee its projections not only in film festivals but also across India, to let girls access a new way of thinking. We hope that this film will encourage others to transform helplessness into courage and to believe in the possibility of a world beyond patriarchy.

I thank you for your understanding of this film’s vision, and we hope to receive your support in making this film.

Sincerely,

Jahnvi Pananchikal

DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT

Shakti – the Power of Love is a short film written over a period of two years, but thought about for over a lifetime. It tells the story of a protagonist who wants the impossible i.e. to accept and raise her girl born out of rape. That too in the 1970s. That’s a big deal.

I started writing alone, imagining a world where woman have the agency to decide what’s good for them. I have seen Shakti’s story in every article, encounter, epic tale and modern story. But many of those representations disappoint me, as an artist, a woman and a human being, because women like Shakti are not victims to me.

For me, Shakti is an inspiring hero. She is flawed yet whole, furious yet gentle, helpless yet courageous, silent yet loud. The film will be shot from her point of view for the most part. Additionally, the camera will largely only focus on one character at a time. The paradox of Shakti’s personality will be demonstrated in pacing – the first half with longer takes, close-ups, and stillness, and the second half in quick, crisp takes, medium and long contextual shots with multiple characters, and movement. This is how the story will build intensity.

The context is a traditional family house and the maternity ward of a hospital. Lighting will show contrast in Shakti’s feeling of entrapment and the hope of seeing girls shine. The window, for example, symbolises possibilities. The daylight then would be clearly visible outside while being lightly reflected on the floor, showing the ephemeral presence of the curtains. The camera will absorb the impact of light on textures and movements of the protagonist when she writes, moves, walks, talks, and sees.

© Gogi SaroJ Pal

More than the external atmosphere, it’s the interior decoration, costume & make-up, and production design that will clearly indicate the time period and context. For example, the kitchen and its utensils in the house and the type of armoire in the living room. Add to that, the paintings on the wall, or the type of traditional saree or salwar-kameez worn by the characters. The sterilization campaign will be demonstrated at the hospital reception through extras dressed in turbans and bare-feet, murmuring in the local language.

Sandhya Mridul will play Shakti in this film. Being a Rajasthani woman, her personal awareness of the struggles experienced by Indian women would do justice to the role. Alongside, Natasha Rastogi is also a Rajasthani woman who grew up in the 1970s. Her knowledge and experience would captivatingly illustrate the challenges faced by the nurse as an institutional employee and a human being. The two characters will be filmed in a very intimate manner, with the focus on the reactions, gaze, silences, and grace in their bodies. The healthy age gap between the actors will help show the nuances of generational differences that fuel the film’s themes of agency and identity.

The period film will be purposefully shown in technicolour, where the bright colours are juxtaposed and superimposed with the grey in the same image. It also serves to show a parallel between the past and the present to demonstrate time’s inter-relationality.

The film’s music is in the silence of movements, breathing, wind, door knocks, footsteps, sounds of dogs, opening of windows and doors and so on. Then there’s the music of the poem recitations that will have its own melody. Moments of conflict and triumphs will be accompanied by an interpretation of Kabir’s couplets with traditional instruments as in Banjara by Maati Baani.

Finally, the darkness of the beginning will be outweighed by the light at the end through transitions: from stillness to fluidity, close-ups to large shots, silence on the inside to vibrant sounds of the outside, the camera observing Shakti to then following her, gradually letting the audience feel, see, and understand her.