Tight budgets, struggles with the censor board notwithstanding, Tighee, a Marathi film about an ailing mother and her daughters, has found deep resonance among the audience
A still from Tighee
Jeejivisha Kale, the young director of the much-acclaimed Marathi film Tighee [three of us], meets us at a book café in a leafy Pune bylane. She has ridden there on a two-wheeler “praying there are no speed breakers” because she’s in a lot of pain due to PMS. The tone of our conversation is set — candid, freewheeling, in tune with her very girl-next-door vibe, a lot of which seems to have seeped into her debut feature film.
Like all good films, Tighee is not about one thing. It reveals deep insights about life, death, relationships, family, and human nature while touching upon sexual harassment and paedophilia. “I was clear I wasn’t making a PSA. I wanted to tell a good story,” Kale quips.
That this small-budgeted Marathi film, centering on the lives of an ailing mother and her two daughters, is going strong a month after its release, without being stamped out by the testosterone-fuelled behemoth currently ruling the box office, is a testament to the need for diverse cinematic content to co-exist.
Jeejivisha Kale, director
“We’ve had people from different parts of the state demanding more shows. Someone from Nagpur recently got together a hundred-plus people through social media so that we could put up an extra show. This kind of love from the audience is heartwarming,” Kale says.
Does this validation taste sweeter after Tighee’s intense struggle with the censor board? The film had to contend with an A certificate, after being denied the U/A rating that could’ve widened its appeal. Kale smiles. “There will be an opportune time to talk about it… For now, I’m just grateful to our producers Shardul Singh Bayas, Nikhil Mahajan, Suhrud Godbole, Neha Pendse Bayas, and Swapnil Bhangale for never backing down. It often happens that when small films go through such rough situations, producers might get demotivated. It might even be advisable to cut losses and move on, but with their support, we have been able to get this film out in the theatres.” The film is indeed out there and thriving. “I’ve had people hug me after the screening, shivering with emotion. Some have whispered in my ear ‘This has happened with me too’,” she says.
The deep resonance the audience has felt with the film is because she and her collaborators worked together “as one brain” to create a lived-in world. World-building comes naturally to the director, who grew up as a single child. “I grew up without a natural playmate and turned to books as companions. I would read anything I could lay my hands on. As a reader, you imagine the characters in your head, how they look and sound. It has informed my filmmaking immensely.”
Thanks to a solid star cast, which includes veteran actor Bharati Achrekar, Neha Pendse Bayas, and Sonalee Kulkarni, the characters in her head have transitioned on to the screen effectively. “To their credit, they respected even my ‘no’. I guess when someone speaks with conviction, people do reciprocate positively.”
“Young woman filmmaker” is, then, a tag she doesn’t care much about. Yet, her intuitive empathy for her women protagonists is palpable. “We straddle multiple lives at any given time. I could be happy to see my sister come home, yet be worried about a call from my boss while also be preoccupied with the washing machine and my clothes will dry by the evening. As women, we are never just doing one thing in a moment. I wanted to bring that out in the film.”
Next, she has a thriller comedy and a mature romance on the cards but that’s all she’s willing to share. She’s content to soak in the appreciation for Tighee from critics and audiences alike.
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