Why short films matter: Sharada Ramanathan on ‘Vidivaanam’ and using dance and movement in her work

Vinay Kumar and Priyadarshini Govind in a still from ‘Vidivaanam’
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Theatre actor Vinay Kumar looks petrified as danseuse Priyadarshini Govind looks on. A voice-over thunders, “Did you envisage the day will come when we buy oxygen?”

This sequence is a part of director Sharada Ramanathan’s recent seven-minute short  Vidivaanam (A New Dawn) currently streaming on YouTube and revolving around the learnings from the pandemic. Using dance, theatre and movement, the film reminds us about the erosion of the basic elements of Nature that sustain us, and the need for us to become the change.

“We went through so much during the pandemic. What are we going to learn from that?” asks Sharada, well known for her work in 2007 film  Sringaram. Citing an example, she refers to a recent trip she undertook to watch birds. “When I drive from Chennai to Coimbatore, I’m constantly thinking of the places to stop at and eat. These birds travel from Siberia to here and would surely think about the trees they would rest in. If you cut even one tree on the way, you have probably traumatised it on its long journey.”

With  Vidivaanam, the National Award-winning director hopes to send across the message to audiences to move away from artificially-made conflicts and look at the larger picture.  Vidivaanam uses theatre and movement to do that, much like some of Sharada’s earlier cinematic works. “The world has seen choreography and dance, but India has given the concept of  abhinaya (expression) to the world. Eye energy is the benchmark of a great performer,” she says, speaking highly of Vinay Kumar and Priyadarshini Govind.

Sharada Ramanathan
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Vidivaanam, which has cinematography by Madhu Ambat and lyrics by Swati Var, features music by Selvaganesh who has used only percussion instruments. Produced by Thaniththirai Productions, it is now among the contenders in the Hollywood Shorts Festival and the Cannes short indie contest in the foreign short category. This film is a sequel to  Adivaanam, which Sharada made during the lockdown in 2020.

“I see long-term impact in films like this. We’ve defied some norms, avoided split-second shots and frivolous lyrics. If you’re trying to carry a message through an audio-visual experience, it will have a multiplier effect. In many ways, this format of shorts, through any experimental approach, will have a significant space in the future of OTT,” explains Sharada, who has three feature scripts up her sleeve, of which one is for OTT and the other two are large-canvas films, “Short films can help share and voice a thought, and remind ourselves on the things we need to keep thinking about.”

Sharada is referring to topics like social justice, human conflict and mankind’s relationship with the environment, issues close to her heart. “Art is a great way to talk about all this.”

What does not appeal to her, however, is how filmmakers use violence in mainstream cinema. “There is too much violence on screen,” she laments, “People are happy to watch gun-pornography and knife-pornography, and that disturbs me greatly.”