‘Turup’ steers clear of violence

By Kishori Sud

Dharamsala, Nov 4 (IANS) "Turup" addresses a number of social issues subtly, but its directors, the Ektara Collective, say they deliberately stayed away from depicting violence in the film as they wanted the audience to introspect on the narrative.

The group of female directors is an independent and non-commercial film collective that initiates creative collaborations between trained and untrained members with an aim to produce content reflecting their realities and experiences.

"Turup", is set in a Bhopal neighbourhood where the male-dominated pastime of choice is chess. The 72-minute film explores the themes of gender, communalism, casteism and oppression.

It was screened at the sixth edition of Dharamshala International Film Festival here on Friday.

At a certain point in the film, the plot builds up to a point where a Muslim character could have been roughed up or murdered. However, it ends on a point which leaves you thinking about what must have happened to the boy in the end.

After the screening, the members of the Ektara Collective spoke about certain nuances of the film which were cleverly and subtly weaved in the film.

Ektara Collective said: "It would have taken away the other important things that we wanted to say. Violence works in and for a lot of films, but we did not want to venture into that subject.

"And it's not like we don't know it happens. We wanted to keep that space for all to introspect and think," they added.

Talking about the entire plot of "Turup" in which not even a single minute could be missed, the group said it was all about each character holding a trump card with "chess being a metaphor".

The film has a lot of actors who were untrained and some were even acting for the first time.

Dharamshala International Film Festival 2017, a four-day extravaganza which started on Thursday, has more films liked up. Some of them are "White Sun", "A Death in The Gunj", "Machines", "Ajji", "Heidi", "Angamaly Diaries", "Ralang Road" and "Village Rockstars".

(The writer's trip is at the invitation of Dharamshala International Film Festival 2017. Kishori Sud can be contacted at kishori.s@ians.in)