Aboy lost in the big city — which boy, you’d ask? And which city? But for director Safdar Rahman — whose debut film Chippa premiered at the MAMI Film Festival and was screened at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles last week — specifics aren’t that big a concern. The coming-of-age story follows a ten-year-old street urchin called Chippa, played by Lion and Sacred Games fame Sunny Pawar.
On the eve of this tenth birthday, Chippa discovers a letter from his estranged father, written in Urdu, and sets about seeking a translator among the night owls of Kolkata. “I was fascinated by the idea of a child wanting to leave home, to run away. It’s a universal feeling,” says Safdar. “The film is set in Park Circus in Kolkata; it’s about the immigrants who live there. I’ve tried to capture a new aspect of the city. However, at the same time, I am aware that outsiders don’t give two hoots about local flavour. To them, it can appear to be another film about Bengali nostalgia, and that’s perfectly fine with me.”
An alumnus of Jadavpur University, Safar moved from Kolkata to Delhi as an instructor for Teach For India. He taught for a couple of years at a primary school in the slums of Seelampur in Delhi. There, he started directing slum kids in plays adapted from popular stories, including a long-ish adaptation of Salman Rushdie’s Haroun And the Sea of Stories. The idea of merging storytelling with education excited him the most, says Safdar, who also runs the education-minded non-profit Red Lorry Yellow Lorry.
After finishing his teaching stint, Safdar returned to Kolkata in 2014 and assisted indie filmmaker Q (Quashiq Mukherjee) on the comedy Brahman Naman and other projects, before deciding to write and direct his own film. “There is a huge cultural baggage that artists in Kolkata have to carry. The Bengali film industry is not conducive to the independent spirit anymore. That’s why most of us are moving out. I think Ronnie Sen (Cat Sticks, also screened IFFLA) is the only indie filmmaker who is sticking around in the city,” Sarfar says.
While the desire to upend cultural hegemonies is a common sentiment among young filmmakers, especially those breaking out of rigid, retrograde setups, Safdar is quick to admit the influence of his roots. “I am relatively chilled out when it comes to stuff like that. As you can see in the film’s poster, I have shown a yellow taxi… but I have also covered it with a garden.”
For the role of Chippa, Safdar wanted to cast the child actor who’d played Haroun in his play. But the boy had since grown of age and signs of puberty were showing on his face. This was a major concern since kids tend to come up faster in their pre-teens and can easily outgrow the characters they are playing on-screen. Then, in 2016, Safdar saw Sunny in Garth Davis’ Lion and decided to cast him. “Sunny is immensely talented and sensitive. At his age, he is more interested in his afternoon cricket than his film career. He didn’t even remember who Anurag Kashyap was despite having worked with him in Sacred Games, where he played Chota Gaitonde.”
Chippa was shot in the winter of 2017 using natural street lighting. The film was an all-exterior shoot, with 80 per cent scenes set in the night. Budget constraints ruled out official permissions or too many retakes. Cinematographer Ramanuj Dutta (Kadvi Hawa, Chauranga) incorporated popular locales like the alleys of North Kolkata or the potters’ colony in Kumortuli while steering clear of giveaway landmarks. “When we think of films set in the night, we imagine a bleak, noir aesthetic. Chippa, on the other hand, is a film about hope. It’s gritty but not macabre. It has a lot of sweetness,” Safdar says.