Arati Kadav on why she made the switch from engineer to sci-fi filmmaker and why death isn't permanent.
Arati Kadav. Pic/ Sameer Markande
My name is Aarti only, but when I was younger, I made up my mind that I wanted to change the spelling," says Arati Kadav, the director of the sci-fi movie Cargo. She may look unsuspectingly docile, but it's this rebellious streak that perhaps led the IIT Kanpur graduate, who once worked at Microsoft in Seattle, to become a filmmaker. Cargo, which premiered at MAMI last year, is about life on Pushpak 634A, where a demon works for the Post Death Transition services, and with the help of a female astronaut, gets dead people ready to be recycled for rebirth.
Though the plot of Cargo sounds complicated, it was with the simple stories of Panchatantra and Indian mythology that Kadav, who grew up in Nagpur, first was introduced to science fiction. "I used to write short stories about fantasy—all things magic came naturally to me. Also, my family was crazy about computers. We got one early on. So, there was a good mix of fantasy and technology," says the daughter of an engineer and a teacher. It was in Seattle that she got a video camera, and started making short videos by herself, while also studying about Martin Scorsese. And so, when she got back to India, she enrolled at Mumbai's Whistling Woods for a course in filmmaking. Her first film there, about a grey coloured man living in a colourful world, was what got her hooked. "He buys himself a colorful robot, who is enamoured by his greyness. The film was appreciated in the school, and I got a big kick making it, seeing my vision come alive. And then I knew, this was a high I wanted to keep feeling."
It may be Western sci-fi (Philip K Dick, Ray Bradbury and the likes) that has shaped most people's view of the genre, but Kadav is a fan of Eastern sci-fi, which she feels she could relate to more as well as an Indian. One example is Ted Chaing's Arrival, which eventually made it to the big screen. "The original, The Story of my Life, is the most beautiful story ever. When I read it I wanted to die of jealousy. Sci-fi doesn't need to be larger than life. It can be simple, nuanced and yet very profound. There is a Spanish author, who is a champion of the unreliable narrator—a character whose version of events doesn't seem to be complete or accurate. Isn't Indian folklore like that as well? Kuch bhi ho sakta hai."
Before Cargo, which is going to travel to other film festivals ahead of its OTT debut, Kadav dabbled in making ads and music videos. But, after Cargo, there is no looking back. "So India has the coolest sci-fi in shape of its own mythology. Like Mahabharat. But, every generation can impact these stories. I had an attraction towards the Yamraj myth. But I wanted to make the afterlife concept more interesting. So after you die, you come to the spaceship, which is like an immigration counter, before you get rebirth." As she gets ready for audiences to start watching it and passing verdict, she says she has a message to go with it, too. "I think what I really wanted to say was that if a life ends, there are still traces of us left behind. Nothing gets over forever. Secondly, forever is not about living on and on. Forever could just be a moment. For instance, when you are looking at a beautiful flower. It could just be that."
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