THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Aaba is a film made in a language the filmmaker does not understand. Amar Kaushik speaks only Hindi and English, while its actors only ‘Apatani’, a language spoken by an Arunachal Pradesh tribe they belong to. But they could communicate. “When the film was selected at Berlin International Film Festival, I rang up the main actor, Dani Randa. We just stood laughing on both ends of the phone, without either of us understanding a word of what the other said,” says Amar. One would guess he would have taken the help of an interpreter to communicate with the actors. However, that was not enough. Dani Randa and Dani Chunya were a tribal couple who had never acted before. In addition, the filmmaker could not convey what he wanted to do. “I would speak to the interpreter, who would speak to the actors. Now, communication is very important between director and actors,” he says.
Shooting was paused for some days so that Amar could stay with the actors in their little hut, and get familiar with them. He would eat and sleep with them. The real ice breaker was a day when he and Dani Randa got slosh-drunk on ‘Apang’, a local brew, and sat patting each other’s backs, laughing and talking in their respective tongues. The film won ‘Special Prize for Generation KPlus International Jury for Best Short Film’ at Berlin, ‘Best Drawa Award’ at Aspen Shortsfest, ‘Best Short Fiction Film’ at the 64th National Film Award. That is a basketful of news to be shared in mime, when he will visit the actors in Ziro valley in July this year. It will be shown at IDSFFK 2017 in the 11.30 am slot on Saturday.
