Interview: Shahrukhkhan Chavada, director, Kayo Kayo Colour
Screened at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, the film follows the daily life of a Muslim family in an Ahmedabad ghetto
How did the idea for the film germinate, and what went into developing the script?
Until a few years ago, I used to be an apolitical person as the environment in which I grew up, politics was hardly a topic of discussion. It was during the anti CAA-NRC protests that I also got involved in a bit of activism. This piqued my interest in knowing more about sociopolitical issues, and I started researching material on world and Indian politics. During this phase of extensive reading, I got inspired by Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, which broadened my outlook through an anthropological lens. Because of consuming diverse literature, my world view began to change drastically. I started looking at routine aspects of life quite differently. Parallelly, during this time, my ideas about cinema were undergoing an alteration as I started consuming Iranian cinema, especially the films of Abbas Kiarostami. They made me realise the power of simplicity.
Prior to that, I was attracted more to films that were well-crafted. I got fascinated with the poetic quality of Iranian films in portraying the quotidian rhythms of day-to-day life. These developments shaped my initial filmmaking sensibility. This got further refined when I chanced upon the slow cinema of the Filipino filmmaker, Lav Diaz, who was one of the jury members at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) this year. His lengthy films made me realise the power of time and how the constraints of time in mainstream cinema are dictated by market ideas.
All these ideas began to influence the aesthetics of my film, and it was organically moving towards being truer to real life. In Kalupur, the Muslim ghetto in Ahmedabad, where we shot the film, we spent about eight months talking to people and understanding their way of life and daily routine. That’s how we curated various scenes and developed the screenplay. The dialogues were written later, and as the shooting progressed, we would improvise according to the situation.
What drew you to the subject of the film?
My primary motivation for choosing the subject was to offer a realistic portrayal of my community. Mostly in Indian cinema and mainstream culture, Muslims have been painted in black-and-white. Either they are shown as criminals or helpless victims of discrimination. Cinema has never looked at them through a humanist lens. In fact, at IFFR, after the film’s screening, a few audience members shared with me that throughout the film they had an ominous feeling that something bad was about to happen. Moreover, the slow and long takes further fuelled the tension. This is basically due to our conditioning from old films, in which some tragedy would strike the Muslim characters. I’ve attempted to break free from this cliched portrayal and show them as normal human beings trying to lead a dignified life with family and friends, just like people from other communities.
The characters inhabiting the ghetto are actual residents and not actors. What made you decide not to cast professional actors?
Keeping the realism aspect in mind, I felt casting people living in the ghetto would feel more real than working with professional actors. Since the principal characters in the film are residents of the area, their way of life and interaction with the space around them came naturally to them. We would initially practice with them and ask them to converse freely along with mouthing the scripted dialogues. Additionally, their daily conversations would also be recorded on the phone. From this footage, we would identify more topics of discussion to be included in the script. So, in a way, the daily routine of the characters shaped the screenplay in a significant way. This wouldn’t have been possible with professional actors.
The title alludes to a game played by children in the film. What else does it symbolise? Why did you strip the film of colour?
Colour stands in as a metaphor for truth. Had I shot the film in colour, then the colours identified by the children while playing the “Which Colour?” game would have become obvious to the viewers. Although it comes across as an absolute truth and is perceived as an objective experience, it would still be subjective as cinema becomes a medium for communication. And if we consider it in the context of the Chinese Whispers game, there is a possibility that the dynamics of truth change due to the director’s interpretation. Therefore, I decided to put a black-and-white filter and draw attention to this dilemma, where viewers have no option but to rely on the truth of the characters.
The four segments in the film differ in their visual language. Since you also don the hat of a cinematographer, how did you arrive at the varying treatment?
In the house inhabited by Razzak (Imtiyaz Shaikh), his wife and two children, you might have noticed a lack of space for free movement. It is cluttered with redundant stuff. Whereas, his sister’s modern apartment is quite spacious with minimal furniture. The sofa cum bed at her place reflects the influence of modernism. I wanted to highlight the contrast in their social status and approach to living. I arrived at a visual language in which the camera resonates with the social reality of the characters.
For instance, the scenes of children playing in the streets were shot using a hand-held camera and portray their carefree spirit in a candid and free-flowing manner. Inside Razzak’s home, I opted for static shots on a tripod, which not only reflect the congested space but also mirrors his sticky financial situation. Whereas, in Razzak’s sister’s home, the camera moves fluidly and smoothly, capturing the vastness of the space and also symbolising her progressive outlook. In their parents’ tiny place, there isn’t any camera movement as it represents their helpless condition, and the lack of tripoded stillness is a metaphor for their precarious and shaky situation.
I also shot the bulk of the film in a 4:3 boxy aspect ratio, in which the frame appears caged by black walls on both the sides. This is the predicament most characters in the ghetto find themselves in, as they are bound by their conditioning. There is this notion, especially among the middle-class that if corruption is eliminated, then our society would become utopian. This premise is inherently false as it turns a blind eye to the overlooked malice of structural violence. Issues like patriarchy, toxic masculinity, gender discrimination and rigidity in thought process, which can be witnessed in the daily routine of the characters, won’t disappear overnight. These problems are holding the community back and preventing any positive change from taking place in their lives.
Arun AK is an independent journalist. Twitter: @arunusual
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