| Suddha (The Cleansing Rites) | |
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Film poster |
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| Directed by | Ramchandra P. N. |
| Produced by | Sonk Films |
| Written by | Ramchandra P. N. Dialogues: Narayana Nandalike Mohan Marnad Surendra Kumar |
| Cinematography | Sameer Mahajan |
| Editing by | Ramchandra PN |
| Release date(s) | 2005 |
| Running time | 105 minutes |
| Country | India |
| Language | Tulu |
Suddha also called The Cleansing Rites is an Indian film, the first ever Tulu language film shot on the digital format. The 105 minutes film was shot in 2004 in a village called Marnad near Mangalore, Karnataka and was released in 2005. The film is an adaptation of the Tulu Sahitya Academy award winning tulu play called Bojja written by Mumbai-based playwright, Narayana Nandalike. Suddha was produced by three Mumbai Tuluvas Mohan Marnad, Surendra Kumar and Ramchandra PN. It has been directed by Ramchandra PN, a graduate of the Film and TV Institute of India, Poona. Suddha is his first feature length film.
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Suddha depicts the death of the feudal system that existed among the Tulu speaking community in coastal Karnataka and the impact the land ceiling act, ushered during the sixties and seventies, has had on its social structure. It is the story of modern India - of changing caste equations and a realization of this reality among the land owning class, albeit a bit late. Though the film is set in a remote village near Mangalore, it could well have happened in any other village elsewhere in India.
An ex-landlord family comes to terms with the fact that they are living in their last leg of feudal existence when it cannot perform a last rites in a grand manner in which it was once used to.
Suddha has been screened at the following International Film Festivals.
1. The Third Annual 'Bollywood and Beyond' Film festival, Stuttgart, Germany in the 'Cinema of Language' section in 2006
2. The Osian's Cinefan, 8th Festival of Asian Cinema, New Delhi 2006.
3. The Split Film Festival, Split, Croatia, 2006
4. Semi-finalist at the Moondance Film Festival, USA 2006.
5. Austin Asian Film Festival, Austin USA, 2006
6. The Chennai International Film Festival, Chennai, India, 2006
7. Bring Your Own Film Festival, Puri, India 2007 (Inaugural Film)
8. The Buffalo Niagara International Film Festival, 2007
9. Karnataka Mini Digital Film Festival, India, 2007
10. Swansea Bay International Film Festival, UK, 2007
11. Golden Apricot International Film Festival, Armenia 2007
1. Best Film in the Indian Competition Section at the Osian's Cinefan Festival of Asian Film held at New Delhi, 2006.
2. Best Film at the Karnataka Mini Digital Film Festival, India 2007
Starring:
The first Tulu cinema was released in 1971. Over the past thirty five years around 35 Tulu films have been made. The Tulu Film has no organised industry as such - in the sense that there is no comprehensive production, distribution and exhibition systems as it exists in the film industries of other Indian languages. The risk of making, distributing and exhibiting the film lies solely with the maker himself. The market for a Tulu film consists of only two districts (Dakshina Kannada and Udupi) in Coastal Karnataka, South India.
Presently most independent documentaries in India are shot digitally. Over the years many short film makers have also sprung up, using the digital medium for their expression. But digital feature films in fiction are far and few in India. The Indian Feature film industry still prefers to shoot films in the celluloid format, although in recent times some films have been exhibited in the digital format. But films shot digitally either do not get a theatrical release (Pankaj Advani's 'Urf Professor') or are converted into celluloid and then released (Ram Madhvani's 'Let's Talk').
SUDDHA got digitally screened in various colleges affiliated with the Mangalore University through DVD players and medium sized digital projectors. The Mangalore University caters to the two Tulu language speaking districts of Karnataka, South India. The local culturaltroupes, ameature drama clubs and litrary groups also helped giving platform to this film in its quest to reach its audience. Around hundred screenings have taken place; some of them in the most remote areas of the two districts. These screenings were acilitated by a modest grant from the 'The Hubart Bals' fund, based out of The Netherlands.