Experimental take on life and death
Debutant Ramgopal tries to tread the less beaten path in his experimental short film Savvy?
Experimental short film is difficult to define, not because its guidelines are abstract or even ambiguous, but because it’s such a wide-ranging genre that defining it almost defeats the purpose of the genre itself. In one sense, it refers to anything that defies the conventions of traditional narrative and documentary cinema. It can be both visceral or mundane, engaging and a complete bore. It can be highly personal or overtly political. It can be literally anything. Experimental short films are also one of the genres that are filmmakers tend not to touch often, and it is not easy to thrill the audience with it. It is, moreover, a make or break type of genre for a filmmaker, let alone for a debutant.
But Ramgopal A., a Thiruvananthapuram native and movie enthusiast, is ready to walk the path less taken and has brilliantly completed an experimental short film, titled Savvy?. “Savvy? has been made on the lines of a crime fantasy. The basic premise is related to a murder and the film strives to look beyond the routine questions — ‘Who?’, ‘How?’, ‘Why?’ and ‘Where?’ — that are normally associated with it. Savio, a contract killer, is apparently raving about his next kill while preparing himself for the same. But things are not as they seem. Lines get blurred, so do time and space. Exploration of death in its entirety takes center stage.” It is hard to believe that this is Ram’s directorial debut after seeing the way he has executed the project.
Ramgopal says he wrote the story one and a half years ago. However the film got delayed due to some reasons. “During the rewriting sessions, I read the book Bardo Thodol or The Tibetan Book Of The Dead, which inspired me to tweak the story a bit. The short film is an effort to shed light on the ideas of birth, death and rebirth, and depicts the journey between each phase.” Other than direction, Prakash Rana’s editing and cinematography is the backbone of Savvy? Music and the use of VFX make this short film a winner. It has Visakh Chandran and Padmaraj Ratheesh playing the lead roles.
Savvy? keeps it a bit ambiguous and leaves the space for the audience to render the idea with their own experience or mood. While ambiguous endings can leave viewers frustrated, confused and dissatisfied, when done well, they can also be a very thoughtful way to end a story. Classic storytelling techniques have created a “happy ending” standard. This dictates what we expect of a movie’s ending, that all plots and sub-plots should be neatly wrapped up. But experimental movies are here to break the stereotypical way of filmmaking, not just in terms of content, but technicality too. Ramgopal’s short film brilliantly breaks the stereotypical narration and brings out an open-ended aspect to it. “That open-ended execution and the ambiguity are the two features that make the movie experimental. I am getting a lot of positive feedbacks and I hope the idea is very well conveyed.” The awards and recognitions from several film fests and competitions underline Savvy?’s success. The film won special mention at the ninth D
ada Saheb Phalke Film Festival 2019, won accolades in events like Druk International Film Festival 2019, Bhutan, Five Continents International Film Festival 2019, South Film and Arts Academy Film Festival 2019, Chile, and was officially selected to the Lift-Off Sessions 2019, United Kingdom. It also won the Jury Award and Best Editing at Confluence India International Film Festival 2019, New Delhi.
Ramgopal loves to explore new ways in cinema and makes maximum effort to get there. “I have some ideas in my mind and have started discussions. But nothing is confirmed. Some of my friends are in touch with me regarding a few projects, too,” he wraps up.