‘SHANKARI’ is the story of a genius girl born into an
impoverished family. Like any girl of her age, she yearns to go to school. Her
mother, who works as a house help cannot afford her education and has pulled
her out of school some years ago. Shankari now helps her mother who works as a servant
maid. Everyday is the same for her… Dull and monotonous punctuated by memories
of her long lost school life. Every day is just the same… But one day turns out
to be eventful. But does that change her destiny?
Duration |
11:54 |
Language |
Kannada |
Location |
Bangalore |
 Directed by Abhijith Yelandur Ramesh
I completed by B.E. in Information Science from UVCE, Bangalore in 2005. It was only much later that I realized my passion lay in cinema. I had always felt a serious inclination to story telling. Any genre of story telling interested me. I chose cinema, for it appeared to be the most fascinating of all the story telling techniques. My repertoire of work isn’t much. I worked as an assistant to documentary filmmaker Pavitra Chalam on one small project. "Shankari" came immediately after that. It was my voluntary contribution to Vibha, an NGO that promotes education as a means of empowerment. A tiny idea that materialized in my mind formed the basis for the short film. As opposed to the regular documentary techniques of creating awareness, I chose to tell a story first and then drive the message through. Shankari was the outcome of this small experiment. It remains my only work as a director. Right now, I am penning the script for a full length feature and hope to make a film soon.
Cast |
Sudeepta - Shankari
Shubhang - Shubhang
Harish - Harish |
Produced by |
Abhijith Yelandur Ramesh |
Script/Story |
Abhijith Yelandur Ramesh |
Cinematography |
R.Phaninder Kumar |
Edited by |
Pradeep Nayak |
Music |
Chinmay Athaley |
Voice over/Narrated by |
Avinash |
Interesting Facts while filming There was no script when we started shooting. I had a vague idea about how the film ‘might’ look when completed. The dialogues b/w Harish and Shubhang was created during shooting. Sudeepta, my niece who played Shankari is a rather fashion conscious girl. She refused to wear the dull and worn out clothes we gave her. It took all of us a great deal of effort to get her into the costume. In the end, she refused point blank to remove her hair band! The puzzle we used in the film became quite a rage with the cast and crew. They would take turns playing with it and it contributed significantly to the delays we experienced while filming. We had a whole episode of Shankari and her mother shot during filming. But unfortunately, due to technical reasons, we had to edit them out. Anything worth Sharing about the movie Shankari was made as a voluntary contribution to VIBHA, an NGO based in the US that is changing the lives of many children in India. My friend, who is a volunteer there, asked me if I could make a docu film for them. I knew nothing of cinema, theoretical or practical. All I knew was that a film is composed of scenes and every scene is composed of shots. With this basic rule, I set out to make the short film. But I had an amazing crew who helped me. Instead of taking over, they would listen to me whatever I said, be it anything worthwhile or absolute nonsense, and then come up with a plan to execute. Special thanks to Phaninder, my cameraman, who was such a wonderful and patient listener and Chinmay Athaley, who composed music for no money and at such short notice. |
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