Pune filmmaker's documentary explores how tea is significant to India

The camera zooms into a bunch of tea leaves which writhe to infuse a golden glow into scalding hot water that caresses them in a glass jar We hear a cackling stir of a spoon as the focus shifts to a frail Syed Bilal Yasni a 90yearold Hyderabadbased tea aficionado who perks up ldquoIf you gently stir the mix with a spoon then those tealeaves which have not opened up will also open adding more aroma to your teardquo In the next few frames we witness stained steel containers brewing large cups of milk tea at a quirkysounding Faltu Tea Centre in Kolkata tinged with a thick Bengaliaccented voiceover of scholar Gautam Bhadra who informs ldquoWorkers and labourers always prefer Assam CTC tea They donrsquot get a kick from Darjeeling leaf tea Thatrsquos the main differencerdquoA worker gathers withered tea leaves to put them into the fermentation section at a tea factory in Rohini near Siliguri DarjeelingFar away in a rustic setting Ambaben a resident of Bawla village in Gujarat fearlessly talks about the discrimination of Dalits at tea stalls and upper caste houses in her mother tongue which translates as ldquoI have to use a separate saucer stored under their thatched roofs and not from the utensils they use They will make me wash it and pour tea in it from aboverdquoA still from Steeped And StirredIn an underthreeminute trailer of Steeped And Stirred launched last week documentary filmmaker Shweta Ghosh gives us a glimpse into the diverse narratives behind the centuryold practice of tea drinking Produced by the Public Service Broadcasting Trust PSBT the 50minute documentary has been commissioned for telecast on Doordarshan and post that it is likely to do the rounds at various film festivals including PSBTrsquos annual Open Frame that takes place in September in New Delhi ldquoMy father and I are crazy about tea I get my love for it from him mdash he never refuses a cup of tea no matter when and where you ask him I wanted to explore something seemingly mundane from a historical political and social perspective and tea fit right in In December 2013 I pitched the film to PSBT and they found it interesting enough to fund it as wellrdquo says the 28yearold Jamshedpurborn Punebased filmmaker who comes armed with an MA in Media and Cultural Studies from TISS and four years of independent filmmaking experience She has helmed two documentaries previously including her debut Accsex which received a special nod at the National Film Awards 2014A tea stall on Bentick Street in Kolkata serves tea from a huge boiler akin to a large samovar used to boil the water inset a unique board at the stall with amusing specifications like No Extra Bhar Bengali cupSipping storiesWhile initially Ghoshrsquos plan was to explore multiple ways of tea drinking practices of communities ldquoLooking at Noon Chai or Salted Tea in Kashmir and trying to see if we can know more about the lives and challenges of the community as wellrdquo her research made her realise that she needed to look at the larger picture ldquoI chose to focus on ways of drinking tea and the caste class and gender reading they can have since these are three fundamental ways in which we are divided as a nation Tea divides and unites us in different ways mdash sometimes blatantly discrimination against Dalits in tea stalls and houses in Gujarat Tamil Nadu and other states and subtle ways what the use of leaf tea vs CTCdust tea tells us about its affordability Tea also has the ability to generate spaces for loitering mdash as Shilpa Phadke coauthor of Why Loiter highlights in the film mdash discussing and forming bonds which are so important to our existence todayrdquo informs Ghosh As part of research the filmmaker drowned herself in books related to tea at IHM Institute of Hotel Management in Aurangabad which is supposed to have one of the largest food libraries in India ldquoA conscious move was not to get too involved in the process of how tea is made from leaf to cup it has been extensively coveredrdquo she addsFrom Bengal to BawlaGhosh who also did the camerawork scripting and editing along with sound recordist Harish Ravichandran ventured on a 17day hectic shoot in March last year to film the lush green tea gardens like Rohini Tea Estate and Makaibari near Siliguri in Darjeeling the buzzing coffee houses of Kolkata and Trivandrum the bustling Irani cafeacutes of Mumbai and Hyderabad along with tea estates in New Delhi ldquoI also shot with innumerable people of various backgrounds on roads trains parks tea stalls and cafeacutes to just get an idea of how people like their teardquo informs the filmmaker who also visited Pune and Bawla village near Ahmedabad during the course of the shoot ldquoA twomember crew made it easier to look unassuming on the streets when interviewing people or talking to those who are conscious on camera However it was challenging to handle the equipment on such a long trip We also faced unexpected duress like the day we were to shoot in Trivandrum there was a citywide strike and incessant rain Some of the processes at the tea factory were not possible to shoot since there were seasonal changes in production schedules between November recce and March shootrdquo says Ghosh who took over five months to concise the footage into a 50minute filmUsing the backdrop of a tea factory the film establishes the history of drinking tea while the filmmaker paints a visual narrative of lsquoclassificationrsquo along casteclass lines through the tea sorting process The docu also offers a glimpse into interesting tea centres and posters from across India like a tea stall on Bentick Street in Kolkata that serves tea from a huge boiler agrave la a Persian samovar or a huge hoarding of Lasa Lamsa Mix that is juxtaposed against Charminar in Hyderabad ldquoI saw this board at a lot of traffic junctions and on asking around was told that they are one of the many dealers of tea in Hyderabad They surely make their presence felt to an outsider in old Hyderabadrdquo she sums upTo watch trailer log on to wwwyoutubecomwatchvUauii0CzHZI