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Journalism of Courage
Director Paresh Mokashi is known for his flair for comedy and dealing with seemingly serious issues in a lighthearted manner. He did this in Harishchandrachi Factory (2009) and while discussing the institution of marriage in Chi Va Chi Sau Ka (2017). With his latest film Khatla-Bitla (Trial Trial), that is due for release in summer, he delves into the terrain of fantastical comedy by creating a fictional court that deals with cases in just one day.
The films style, narration and editing is markedly different than his earlier films. The layers of the story unfold with the testimonies of various witnesses who are brought to court and via the arguments put forward by the lawyers. While the film starts as a courtroom satire, through the course of the narrative it becomes a critique of Indian society and its obsession with beauty attributes such as skin colour, hair and overall outward appearance of an individual. At the outset of the film, the male and female protagonists stand as the accused but by the end, the society as a collective stands as the accused. The protagonists Deepali (played by debutante Jyoti Wayadande) and Shravan (Abhijeet Pawar) try to end their life as they are fed up of being discriminated against due to their ‘inadequacies’, namely her dark skin and his baldness. While they fail to achieve that goal, they are caught in the act by the police and are booked for trying to commit suicide.
The theme of the film, Mokashi says, was suggested by his wife Madhugandha Kulkarni, who has also co-written the screenplay. “In our society, we know people who are actually driven to suicide because of how they look. We read about such instances in the news all the time. Marriages are broken and jobs are lost over these issues. The question was how to present the argument. Once the idea of a court trial came, that issue was resolved,” says Mokashi.
He adds that choosing a satire gave him the liberty required for the subject matter. “Choosing realism or fantasy is a choice that you make, but if you choose realism, you have to be very careful and accurate,” says Mokashi.
He is not worried about how people will react to the comic way in which the judge and the judicial system is portrayed. “When we made Harishchandrachi Factory, some people criticised it for its comic take. They said it trivialised Phalke’s struggle. But I feel every filmmaker makes his own choices based on his own worldview,” says the filmmaker.
