Malayali journalist-cum-filmmaker V.S. Sanoj has had a long-standing fascination with Varanasi. Based in Lucknow and covering politics in Uttar Pradesh for more than a decade, he has been attracted to the mystique of the holy city, which he often visited as a journalist. But to fully capture the overwhelming presence of death in the ghats, he wanted a more creative and evocative medium than a newspaper.

So Sanoj decided to make a film, even though he had no script at hand. “I only knew I wanted the city to be a character,” he says. When he dug deeper into the social fabric of Varanasi, along with fellow journalist-cum-scriptwriter Jinoy Jose, he realised that death plays a pivotal role in both destroying and building barriers between different classes and castes, an observation that gave birth to his short film Burning.

Interlinked factors

The Hindi film introduces us to two mothers from different socio-economic backgrounds, who meet for a traumatic negotiation over the mortal remains of their children. The interlink between death, bodies and religion has long been a subject of interest for Jose, who remembers reading about a case during the 2004 tsunami when families fought over a body. One of the families ultimately performed last rites on a body that didn’t belong to them, in an attempt to seek closure. It inspired Jose to write about two mothers forced into a similar negotiation by patriarchal and societal forces. As they interact at Varanasi’s funeral ghats, a dialogue emerges between two classes and castes, connected by shared experiences of oppression. “The idea is to talk about how women are subjugated to various forms of violence: born of patriarchy, religion, caste and class,” says Sanoj.

One location

Filmed in one location, the film focuses on the conversation but we occasionally hear a voice-over of the controlling men. “We (used that device) because patriarchy is invisible but its impact is very much visible,” says Jose. Burning demonstrates how oppression and violence against women cut across class and caste. Their inner turmoil is often brought out through dramatic but clichéd shots of Varanasi, including images of sadhus meditating on the river banks.

North Indian life

Although he had never been to Varanasi before writing the film, Jose says he “experienced North India differently” as a journalist in Delhi. “The complexity of north Indian life has been mystifying to me,” he says. Both Sanoj and Jose banked on their journalistic skills to understand and convey the complex realities depicted in Burning. “Writers with a journalistic background are more grounded and rooted in reality,” says Jose. But as two Malayalis making a film in Varanasi, what was their process of bringing in authenticity? “We got our main actors from outside Kerala and from the central belt of India,” says Sanoj, who cast Ketaki Narayan and Rukshana Tabassum to play the lead.

After playing at the Indian Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa and Kolkata International Film Festival, the duo hopes to take their first-born to festivals outside India. “We have applied to a few and are waiting to hear back,” says Sanoj. They are now collaborating on a feature in Malayalam, which they hope to start shooting next year. As journalists, their focus will remain on exploring socio-political realities but as filmmakers, they want to tap into the complexities of human emotions.

kennith.rosario@thehindu.co.in