"I was clear I wasn't making a PSA"

The director of the much-acclaimed Tighee talks to Renu Deshpande Dhole on what went into shaping the very relatable world of her debut Marathi feature film

Jeejivisha Kale, the young director of the much-acclaimed Marathi film Tighee, 

meets me in a leafy by-lane of Pune at a book café she has picked. She has arrived before our scheduled appointment, and is using the time to make a few calls, “because my parents live in a small apartment here and something is always going on.” She has ridden there on a two-wheeler “praying there are no speed-breakers” because she’s in a lot of pain due to PMS, she shares. The tone of our conversation is set – candid, freewheeling, in tune with her very girl-next-door vibe, a lot of which seems to have seeped into her debut feature film.

Like all good films, Tighee is not about one thing. It reveals deep insights about life, death, relationships, family and human nature while touching upon important themes like sexual harassment and paedophilia (“I was clear I wasn’t making a PSA. I wanted to tell a good story,” Kale quips). That this small-budgeted Marathi film, centering on the lives of an ailing mother and her two daughters, is going strong a month after its release, without being stamped out by the testosterone-fuelled behemoth currently ruling the box office, is a testament to the need for diverse cinematic content to co-exist. “We’ve had people from different parts of the state demanding more shows. Someone from Nagpur recently got together a hundred plus people through her social media posts so that we could put up an extra show. This kind of love from the audience, where they feel it’s their responsibility to promote the film, is heartwarming,” Kale says.

Does this validation taste sweeter after Tighee’s intense struggle with the censor board? The film, after all, had to contend with an A certificate, after being denied the U/A rating that could’ve widened its appeal. Kale smiles. “There will be an opportune time to talk about it…For now, I’m just grateful to our producers Nikhil Mahajan, Suhrud Godbole, Neha Pendse Bayas, Swapnil Bhangale and Shardul Singh Bayas for never backing down. It often happens that when small films go through such rough situations, producers might get demotivated. It might even be advisable to cut losses and move on, but with their support, we have been able to get this film out in the theatres.” The film is indeed out there and thriving. “I’ve had people hug me after the screening, shivering with emotion. Some have whispered in my ear ‘This has happened with me too’,” she says.

The deep resonance the audience has felt with the film is because she and her collaborators worked together ‘as one brain’ to create a lived-in world, she acknowledges. “I have had people telling me they appreciated the brass tumbler on the water pot in the family’s kitchen. That is the genius of my production designer Amit Waghchaure. I was blessed with collaborators who knew their craft so well.” In one of her initial conversations with Waghchaure, she remembers, she had underlined the need to have an assortment of cups in their kitchen. “In a typical home, the cups in the kitchen often do not belong to a single set. Some are broken, someone replaces them with new ones, some are gifted…these are details that lend the house next-door feel to film’s world.”

World-building, in fact, comes naturally to the director, who grew up as a single child in a small household. “I grew up without a natural playmate in the house and turned to books as companions. I would read anything I could lay my hands on. As a reader, you imagine the characters in your head, how they look and sound. Being a reader has informed my filmmaking immensely.” Thanks to a solid star cast, which includes veteran actor Bharati Achrekar, Neha Pendse Bayas and Sonalee Kulkarni in the lead roles, the characters in her head have transitioned on to the screen very effectively. “To their credit, they respected even my ‘no’. I guess when someone speaks with conviction, people do reciprocate to the force of that feeling.” Kale admits that she was assertive on the sets. “I heard it from my crew. These are all things that you realize later. At that moment, you are just trying to do your job right.”

‘Young woman film-maker’ is, then, a tag she doesn’t care much about. Yet, her intuitive empathy for her women protagonists is palpable. “We straddle multiple lives at any given time. I could be happy to see my sister come home, yet be worried about a call from my boss while also be preoccupied with the washing machine and my clothes will dry by the evening. As women, we are never just doing one thing in a moment. I wanted to bring that out in the film.”

Next, she has a thriller comedy and a mature romance on the cards. “I don’t want to reveal too much right now.” She’s content to soak in the appreciation for Tighee from critics and audiences alike. “For someone like me, who comes from a small background, so many people feeling that the film is theirs is hugely satisfying. It makes me believe that a film that doesn’t employ any of the broad-stroked emotions and which, in fact, makes one sit uncomfortably with themselves, can still be a rewarding theatrical experience,” she signs off.