With the advent of digital revolution cinema has entered a new space. The sacredness which was there earlier is now lost but looking from the other side, from the audience perspective we get to see the work of emerging talented young filmmakers. One one side the mainstream cinema suffers from the stereotyped storytelling formula typically larger than life characters just aiming at the box office and on the other extreme the arty films continue to challenge the audience to make out sense of narrative from the visuals.
Somewhere between these two extremes there have been films which stand on the ground narrating stories of common people with whom we get connected much easier. There have been numerous films that fall in this set but Raam Reddy's "Thithi" took a leap further by positioning the visual narrative in the actual location with minimal crew and most surprisingly acted by non actors. The film was shot in a village in Mandya (Karnataka) with the majority of cast being villagers, basically farmers. The experience that got created with this approach is commendable and unforgettable. "Thithi" has kind of achieved a cult status among film buffs. Not much far from Mandya, a little down south in Kannanghad (Kerala) a similar effort has been accomplished by Senna (Prasanna) Hegde. His directorial debut 0-41* (part fiction, part documentary) is a story set in Kannanghad and has the localites and all of them non-actors.
Discreetly inspired by real life events the narrative is straight forward. Its a story about friends who chill in their own way in the small town. What binds them is the passion for the volleyball game they play in the evening and the alcohol party they have every other night. The game gives way to a serious situation as one of the team gets successively beaten for over twenty odd games. The captain of the losing team, the protagonist a non believer of God and who has not seen the best of life right from his childhood undergoes a transformation but when lady luck or the divine is about to strike his success in the game he just wants to that capture that sacred moment. Its very humane and all of us always live the moment of success and for a person who has experienced failures in series it is life changing. Thanks to some brilliant writing the narrative touches on different aspects like affairs of the state, the mockery on prohibition of alcohol, the oasis like gulf illusion the youth of Kerala dream about. Some of the sequences remain memorable because they are strikingly real and naturally comical.
The movie though made with shoe-string budget has an impressive visual and sound appeal. Seems like that if you make a film in the surroundings you know, you can have a greater control. Its quite surprising that "sync sound" has been very effectively captured. Since the cast is mostly non professional actors it gets a bit uncomfortable during some of the sequences in the beginning. But as the film progresses you get to know the space and can expect how exactly the characters react. The part documentary gives the characters the chance to speak their hearts out. Some do it comically, where as some are serious. The music is quite sensible. Though songs really don't fit in, there are a few of them shot with montage sequences.
0-41* brings in freshness just like Thithi. It beckons you not to just watch but be a part of the film experiencing the friends battle each other in the field and sharing their life stories.
