Algorithms, the first ever feature documentary on blind chess directed by British sports sociologist-turned-documentary filmmaker Ian McDonald, became one of the handful of documentaries to be commercially released in India on August 21.
Ian’s wife, Kerala-born journalist-turned-filmmaker Geetha J., who was the producer and creative collaborator for the movie, was in Kochi as part of the first commercial screening of the film in India.
“The idea came from Ian reading a news report on a blind chess championship in India. We were surprised that despite championships being held we knew very little about blind chess.”
“This intrigued us and our research brought us to Charudatta Jadhav, a professional blind chess player who has represented India in world championships and Olympiads and is now teaching the game. Since Ian’s style of documentary making is observational, we spent three years shooting live footages of three blind students, travelling with them to competitive tournaments and the only interview was that of the parents.
“Later, after going through almost 250 hours of footages at the editing table for one and a half years, we finished the film and then spent another three years taking it to festivals across the globe,” says Geetha.
Most of Algorithms’ crew are from Kerala, including editor Ajithkumar B. and sound engineer Harikumar N. Referring to their film journey, she says, “I was born in a Tamil family in Kerala. My grandfather migrated to Thiruvananthapuram and founded an engineering college here and we settled in Kerala. I met Ian in Mumbai during a conference and after our wedding, I went to England. Both of us have been shuttling between the two countries ever since. Ian had this habit of taking his camera everywhere he went and I happened to see some footages he had made of Kalaripayattu for research. I prompted him to make it into a documentary and that is how he started. I used to write fiction at the time and our collaborations led to my own entry into short films. So, we inspired each other to turn filmmakers.”
Now, the film, that has received seven awards and a Grierson nomination, has released theatrically across seven cities in India — Kochi, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru.
However, Geetha says the theatre release was no easy task. “Though there were festivals, we knew the film would reach the general public only with a theatre release. But, since we don’t have that style of film culture in India, the biggest challenge for us was to get the audience to overlook the preconceptions that come with the tag of documentary. A one-hour-40-minute black and white film about blind chess players is not exactly appealing. But once we get them to the theatre, no one has left without feeling touched by the footage, and since the usual voice over narrative was missing, it was less a documentary and more like a natural movie, making it more relatable.
“The movie is more about the emotions of these characters than about blindness. There is a scene where the blind chess players meet at a tournament and ask each other ‘How blind are you? 30 per cent? 70 per cent?’ and when the other responds 100 per cent, they say ‘That’s awesome’ So that is the natural way of life for the three players. They are like any other kids and blindness is just another obstacle they have to overcome,” she explains.
The theatrical launch of Algorithm in India was inaugurated by five-time World Chess champion and Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand with a friendly blind blitz match with Charudatta.
“We had a special screening with a full house of blind and visually impaired audience on August 9 in Chennai. The film was screened with an audio-description of the videos. This dispels our myth that blind people don’t go to the movies. However, this was perhaps the first time many in the audience got a chance to do so in a community setting within a theatre, and they have requested us to hold such special screenings in all the cities. Now we are planning that. Ian also has a few documentary ideas that we are developing. I could not work on any other film in the seven years that we spent on Algorithm. But I found time to write fiction scripts that are complete. If I find the backing, I will soon make my feature fiction film.”
