Ram Ramesh Sharma, who dropped out of a film institute to make Kaafiron Ki Namaaz, tells Divya Kaushik that he got the idea of the film three years ago during a train journey from Delhi to Mumbai. He says it’s about intimacy and ego
It is difficult to say if it was unusual narration, relevant storyline or strong yet subtle message that made Kaafiron Ki Namaaz win accolades at recently concluded ladakh International Film Festival (lIFF). But the win has surely made the movie and its makers get their due share of recognition. The film Kaafiron Ki Namaaz (The Virgin Arguments) is directed by Ram Ramesh Sharma, a 26-year-old who dropped out of Subhash Ghai’s Whistling Woods International film institute to follow his passion. As a child Sharma travelled across the country as his father was in a transferrable job. He completed his education in Delhi and went to Mumbai over three years ago to pursue his dream of becoming a filmmaker. He was enrolled in a filmmaking course with cinematography as his specialisation but dropped out just before the diploma film to make Kaafiron Ki Namaaz.
“I met Bhargav Saikia, the producer of the film, at the film institute. He took production as his specialisation. I had some ideas which I discussed with him. And eventually we settled on one and started Kaafiron Ki Namaaz while doing our respective courses. But with time, it was becoming difficult for both of us to continue with both the film and the course. So just before our diploma film shoot, we became adventurous and dropped out of the film school. From there, it was a routine filmmaking process. We formed a team, worked on the music and looked for the right cast. We did recce and chose Kashmir to shoot the film as it provided not just the perfect setting to the narration but the much-needed drama to the script,” says Sharma, who is also a script writer and lyricist of Kaafiron Ki Namaaz.
The film is the story of three people — an army man, a writer and a musician, who confess their most personal secrets to each other on a rainy Christmas eve somewhere in Srinagar, while a fourth person, the writer’s camera assistant, stands as a mute spectator and records everything on his camera. The narrative follows a writer and his camera assistant, who travelled from Kolkata to Srinagar. The writer’s purpose is to interview a recently court-martialed army man for his new book. The two of them meet in an old, abandoned Kashmiri hotel. located just below the army man’s abode is an all-night tea shop run by Junaid, who during the day works with a wedding band. As the writer and the army man talk, Junaid serves them tea and biscuits, while occasionally engaging in small talk with the two. As the night gets colder and the questions gather momentum, the three reveal their most personal secrets to one another. The camera assistant records the rising confrontation between them. The film focusses on this man as a mute accessory to the proceedings as their dramatic encounter develops and turns into a thriller. Says Sharma, “Confession is the central theme of the film. It’s a very unusual narrative. Almost 90 per cent of the film takes place inside a room. The drama is very ambiguous in nature and so is the treatment. It’s a conversation film, juggling between intimacy and ego. There is a tremendous rage inside its characters.”
Sharma got his story during a train journey from Delhi to Mumbai. The director states, “I took this journey three years ago. There were three people travelling in the same compartment as mine — a retired income-tax officer, a journalist from a national daily and his associate. The income-tax officer and the journalist started talking to each other as soon as they met. Both of them looked like foodies to me. From general introduction to talking about their favourite food recipes, politics and even homosexuality — they were chatting about anything and everything. I had a window seat. I didn’t feel like being part of their communication. They were at least 30-35 years elder to me. The fourth person, the journalist’s associate remained quiet. Unexpectedly, their random conversation turned into a heated argument over a national issue, so much so that they started shouting at each other. I was rather amused. So was that fourth person, but he didn’t interfere. His silence thrilled me. And I was entertained by whatever was going on between those two people. They both went berserk and started screaming at each other. I was watching all this and not once did I feel like stopping them. It was fun being an observer. It was only after the interference of other fellow passengers from the adjacent cabin that they both calmed down. I was smiling inside. That fourth person, the journalist’s associate, was still silent. I think he was just seeking some kind of voyeuristic fun. Well, in that way, I too was doing the same. I reached Delhi but this story stayed with me. The idea of having people from different walks of life and watching them interact was very tempting. The drama looked very pure to me.”
Kaafiron Ki Namaaz had its international premiere at Jeonju International Festival, South Korea, where it was presented in the international competition section. The film had also won two awards at Dada Saheb Phalke Film Festival 2014 in Delhi for best actor (Alok Chaturvedi) and best cinematography (A Vasanth). In Assam, the film received rave reviews at Brahmaputra Valley Film Festival held in April this year. It is scheduled to be screened at various film festivals in the forthcoming months, including Bollywood Film Festival in Norway, along with films such as Ugly, Hawaa Hawaai, Monsoon Shootout and Nagesh Kukunoor’s lakshmi. Sharma informs, “Screening and winning awards at film festivals give your film an acknowledgement and that makes people curious for your film. Honours we received at lIFF has already given the much-needed popularity to the film. It was a great experience to be in ladakh for the film festival. I liked what jury members cited while giving award for the best film to Kaafiron ki Namaaz. They said, ‘It’s a film that stands out for its effort to engage very important issues of religion, of sexuality, of personal vanity, of moral ambivalence and finding justifications for something that you wish to cover.’ The film was also appreciated for its gripping, powerful narrative and interesting storytelling format. So right now we are looking forward to take the film to more festivals.”
The filmmaker has already started working on his next feature film, “a relationship drama spanning five decades, from the times of emergency till present.” He is also working on a TV mini series.