Film on rural girl’s struggle for education selected for Cape Town Film Festival

A scene from Pune filmmaker Manouj Kadaamh’s Kshitij.

Sometimes, a simple story told beautifully can have an impact beyond imagination, and Pune filmmaker Manouj Kadaamh’s Kshitij is one such tale. Kshitij, a story of a 12-year-old girl’s struggle to continue her education in the face of severe adversity, has made it to the Cape Town International Film Festival to be held from October 12 to 21 at Cape Town.

The film revolves around a girl Vacchi, who comes from a poor family. Financial struggles pushes the family to leave their village and go to a neighbouring town to do back-breaking labour in sugarcane fields. Despite the challenging situation and days filled with hard toil, Vacchi quietly finds time to study, much to the irritation of her father, a simple farmer who has very little sympathy or understanding for her aspiration.

“Vacchi faces all these obstacles with a quite positivity that finds a way to solve all these problems as they occur. Her efforts, however, bring her closer and closer to a confrontation with her father,” says Kadaamh. The film has also been selected for the Indian Film Festival Houston, to be held in Houston, Texas, US. Kshitij has been produced by Media Filmscraft.

Talking about the inspiration behind the film, Kadaamh said that it is inspired by a short story by Professor Raybhan Davange. “I wanted to see it on the big screen as it had a very positive approach towards life. In face of all odds — natural, situational or man-made — there’s always a story of hope,” he adds.

The film was shot in a single schedule in November last year at Nanaz village, Jamkhed District, Ahmednagar, Beed, Pune and various villages in Islampur District. The film stars Upendra Limaye, Vaishnavi Tangde (Vacchi), Kanchan Jadhav, Rajkumar Tangde and Arnav Mandrupkar, among others.

For the role of the protagonist Vacchi, Kadaamh was particularly looking for a village girl who was not just emotional but also used to working in farms barefoot in the hot sun and could carry water and loads on her head. The team conducted auditions in different rural areas in different parts of Maharashtra for the role and after 17 auditions, they found Vacchi in Vaishnavi Tangde.