Jayan Cherian at IFFI: ‘Wanted to capture Siddi community’s collective imagination, cultural identity’

Cherian has been successful interaction with the assemblage successful Uttara Kannada territory — the Siddis person lived successful Karnataka for astir 400 years — since helium began processing enactment connected ‘Rhythm of Dammam’ successful 2016. He says the screenplay evolved organically arsenic helium lived successful the assemblage successful Yellapur municipality and “interacted regular with my characters.”

“I engaged extensively with the assemblage elders, conducting interviews to research their folktales, myths, legends, and their perspectives connected history. Through this process, I sought to seizure the community’s corporate imaginativeness and taste identity,” helium says. Rhythm of Dammam is being screened successful the ‘Cinema Of The World’ conception of the ongoing 55th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) successful Goa.

A inactive from the movie

The 92-minute film, which predominantly uses the ‘Siddi dialect’ of Konkani, follows the communicative of Jayaram, who contempt seeking assistance from section achromatic magicians is haunted by the tone and escapes into a imagination world, utilizing ‘magical’ instruments from his gramps to link with his ancestors. The agonising past of his ancestors’ chattel slavery overwhelms Jayaram. He loses interaction with world and drops retired of school, prompting his household to strive to reconstruct his equilibrium by embracing tribal rituals and Dammam music, some captious to their taste heritage.

A pupil of Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami, Cherian, who holds a Master of Fine Arts successful filmmaking from The City College of New York, says helium views himself “simply arsenic a storyteller”, sharing the stories of the radical helium interacts with, stories that intertwine with his ain and go a portion of his existence. “On a deeper level, I go my cinema; it is an inseparable portion of me. If you chopped me, I bleed cinema,” helium says.

Cherian has often chosen the stories of those surviving connected the fringe oregon not conforming to societal norms. That’s evident from his movies, including Ka Bodyscapes (2016), The Shape of the Shapeless (2010) and Papilio Buddha (2014), which tells the communicative of Shankaran, a young Dalit man, who befriends a achromatic cheery American lepidopterist (a idiosyncratic who studies oregon collects butterflies and moths).

Cherian says astir of his erstwhile enactment is profoundly inspired by modern societal movements, specified arsenic the Dalit onshore struggles successful Kerala and the LGBTQIA+ movement.

“My enactment broadly investigates however identities —such arsenic race, gender, ethnicity, and their intersectionalities — are constructed, performed, and employed arsenic tools of some oppression and empowerment… For me, it is indispensable to unrecorded alongside my characters and actively prosecute with the assemblage during the penning process,” helium says.

As a substance of people then, successful Yellapur, portion moving for Rhythm of Dammam, Cherian actively participated successful Siddi events and household functions. Since the movie features a fig of first-time actors, Cherian besides conducted respective acting workshops, “drawing connected the Siddi community’s singular creator talent”.

“Many Siddis are people talented singers and dancers, and the beingness of nonrecreational actors wrong the community, specified arsenic Prashant Siddi, Girija Siddi, and Parshuram Siddi, greatly contributed to the process. Their expertise played a cardinal relation successful grooming and preparing caller actors for the shoot,” helium says.

The assemblage embraced him arsenic 1 of their own, says Cherian. “I person formed heavy friendships wrong the community. Notable individuals specified arsenic Mohan Siddi, Jayaram Siddi (the archetypal lawyer from the community), Yellapur MLC Shantaram Siddi, and assemblage leaders similar Lawrence Siddi and Santosh Siddi person go similar household to me”.