PANAJI: Acclaimed filmmaker and senior actor Ananth Narayan Mahadevan’s film ‘Bittersweet’ forces the society to give a thought to the inhuman conditions the agrarian workforce toils in, so as to provide the impetus to the economy of the country.
While addressing the media at the ongoing IFFI 52 on Wednesday morning, Ananth Mahadevan revealed how a news headline screaming ‘Beed – a village of women without wombs’ – got him intrigued to focus on this subject of the plight of women sugarcane cutters in Maharashtra in the race to make India the No 1 sugar exporter in the world to beat Brazil. The Marathi film has also been showcased across the world in various film festivals.
In order to continue to work on a paltry sallary without missing even a single day through menstrual cycle as well, women underwent hysterectomy, which is a surgical procedure to remove the womb (uterus), at the hands of ‘quacks or gynaecologists wanting to make money.’
“This is a story of survival, this is a story of changing the biological cycle which is the most dangerous thing that we are doing; and this is a story of a procedure and a ritual that none dares to stop because of a very powerful sugar lobby. Bittersweet (‘Kadu God’ in Marathi) is a story of India’s blood sugar. It is how bitter the sugar that we use, can be in real life,” explained Ananth Narayan Mahadevan, who has written, directed and edited the film.
It is a rare occasion where a director at IFFI has a feature film as well as a short film on show, with Ananth Narayan Mahadevan’s experimental non-feature film ‘The Knocker’ exploring the idea about loneliness in an imaginative way. “It was an exercise that helped me to survive the lockdown,” quipped the renowned film personality, who makes it to the IFFI for the fifth year.
