Amit Rai’s ““I” Pad” tries to soak in the attention of the market which is oblivious to the basic need of the majority of Indian women
In his ‘made in Ulhasnagar’ jeans and shirt it is easy to ignore Amit Rai in the gathering of country’s emerging filmmakers but when his work unspools on the projector it is hard to take eyes off the screen. Those who took the Road to Sangam with Amit in 2010 will vouch for his ability to find an extraordinary character in ordinary lives. The story of mechanic Hashmatullah, who was entrusted with the task of repairing the wagon that took Mahatma Gandhi’s ashes to Triveni Ghat continues to be relevant in times when composite culture needs a fresh coat.
At the Investor’s pitch in Film Bazaar in Goa this year, Amit pitched a film that makes us ask what ‘Make in India’ should be all about. On the surface “I” Pad is about the entrepreneurship of an ordinary Indian who wants to make the life of his better half easier by making affordable sanitary pads but in the process the film comments on the market, which doesn’t allow access to 70 per cent of Indian women to lead a life of dignity just because they can’t afford the expensive pads made by the multinationals. “And nobody is talking about it,” avers Amit.
Coming from a lower middle class family of Mumbai, Amit is the first generation of filmmakers, who have access to the camera and they are eager to tell their story. “For long we have been stereotyped in films. Now that we are on the other side of the lens, we want to put our point of view and it is going to knock off many established notions.” Amit has seen the market’s ability to bulldoze over small business from close quarters. “My father was a mill worker and like many families we suffered when mills were shut down in Mumbai. I don’t go to Phoenix mall because it is built over the graves of many a mill worker. They have designed the chimney with light as if making fun of the common mill worker.”
Amit maintains he has no problem with the big players in the market but it should not be at the cost of ingenious work force. “In Ulhasnagar a pair of jeans is available for Rs.300 but the market doesn’t support the local manufacturer. Despite all the talk of khadi, common man can’t buy a good cotton shirt. He has to go for Chinese T-shirt because it is cheap. The tribals who produce honey can’t buy their own product from the market as organic products have become very expensive. They have to buy a branded product which is not pure. Similarly, the market has turned something that every woman needs every month into something elitist.” He reminds it is not a new debate.
“When Gandhiji met Chaplin, the director asked Gandhiji why is he against cinema and machinery. Gandhiji said he is not against machinery. He is against that machinery that creates unemployment. After that Chaplin made Modern Times, where the inherent message is that machinery should not throw mankind out of work. Similarly I am not against any market. I am only against that market which forces the poorest of poor to sleep without food.”
Inspired by the story of A. Muruganantham from Coimbatore who made a low-cost machine for sanitary pads after braving a long struggle with the family and society, Amit says that he met him and told him about the idea of making a film on the subject. “I have set the film in Bhopal, a city known for entrepreneurial talent. It is a city which stood up on its feet after the biggest gas tragedy in the world.”
“I” Pad traces the story of Natraj, who is a local Newton for his assistant Pencil but for his wife Saavi he is somebody who lacks focus.
“An incident leads him to decide to make a local sanitary pad which his wife can afford. Like most housewives, she puts the household needs above her hygiene and Natraj wants to find a solution. During the course of his research he discovers that only 7 per cent women in rural areas have access to commercial sanitary pads. He gets started but where should he test his product. His wife thinks he has either gone mad or it is an excuse to meet younger women, his mother feels he is under some supernatural influence and it leads to some tragic-comic situations. Which man would have the audacity to ask unacquainted women about their period dates? Desperate for a feedback, he goes to a prostitute and she brands him a pervert.”
Ultimately, Amit says, Natraj tries it on himself by creating a makeshift uterus and filling it with goat’s blood. “Natraj goes about his life for a day, occasionally, squeezing the contraption to test his latest creation. However, after just a few hours, the discomfort and stench make him realise for the first time the magnitude of the challenge he had taken upon himself.” However, the experience strengthens his resolve. He realises the difference between cotton and cellulose and goes the jugaad way to create a machine that delivers a sanitary pad whose absorption power is as good as those available in the market but is affordable.
Amit says he knew with such a story there is always a chance of slipping into the outrageous territory. “I feel I have managed to strike a balance and the drama will tug at your heart with its earnestness.”
He refers to a scene where a despondent Natraj wipes off his tears with a sanitary pad. Some of my friends found it melodramatic but to me it is realistic. He was so involved in the process that even if he stained his hands withy grease he would have cleaned it with a pad.”
For Amit it was always a story of market and he is glad that his mentors at Film Bazaar got the point. “Female mentors related with the problem but when Marco Mueller, former director of Rome Film Festival, asked are you trying to tell me India should stand on its own feet. Have you made a film on Make in India,”
Amit says he realised he has made something which has universal appeal. “For it is nowhere explicitly said in the film.” He has already got invitation from several film festivals, including Berlin. “The real test, however, will be when the women who have no access to sanitary pads watch it.”
The making of a filmmaker
Amit’s own story is no less interesting. Hailing from Easter Uttar Pradesh, his father was a mill worker. In good days he lent some money to a Muslim friend who ran away to Saudi Arabia. “We had almost given up when one day he returned with lots of gifts and one of them was a VCR of National. As we had no television set at home, my father went to the neighbourhood electronics shop to sell it. The shopkeeper knew that he is out of job and advised him to buy a television on instalments and start the business of video parlour. My father liked the idea and roped me into it.” He didn’t know what he is getting into. “I got hooked to films and soon could tell how and when the next scene will be cut,” recalls Amit. “I was also doing theatre and cleared the entrance test of National School of Drama but my father was against the idea of going to Delhi and asked me to find an alternative career.”
He joined M.Com and started taking tuitions. “Soon I was known as masterji in the locality and in three years I became financially independent.” The fire was still burning and Amit appeared for the entrance test for FTII. “I missed it by one mark but in the meantime somebody advised me to join Pune University which was offering a course in theatre. When I reached there for interview I realised that the course is in Marathi theatre and I didn’t know the language. Thankfully, Waman Kendre, with whom I had done workshops and who had seen me at NSD, was in the interview panel. He asked me to show something. I enacted the first act of Tughlaq in Bhojpuri. Kendre said this boy would learn Marathi.” He was right. Amit not only learnt the language but also topped the course. “Meanwhile, I started assisting Mangesh Hadawale on Tingya. When the film was selected to the India’s entry for Oscars, the crew was noticed and I got an opportunity to turn a two minute story that an NDTV reporter shared with me into Road to Sangam. The film won many awards and the industry started acknowledging the presence of Amit. “They met me but nobody offered me work. Then I realised I have to return to the drawing board and right something as compelling as first film. When I cast Sudhir Nema of Bhopal Rang Mandali as Natraj I was advised to cast somebody like Irrfan or Nawazudding but what Sudhir has done nobody could have achieved it. He knows the idiom of the place and like me has a personal connection with the story, which I discovered much later. His father ran a small business in Bhopal.”
For the story on A. Muruganantham read “A man in a woman’s world” by Akila Kannadasan (http://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/society/a-man-in-a-womans-world/article2875390.ece)
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