BENGALURU: Unable to deal with his divorce, Kumar packs and his bag and heads to his ex-wife’s home... Only to learn that she is now in a relationship with a woman who was his former best friend. In short, the film Mud Mud Ke Na Dekh looks at the equation between the three and gives them a chance to figure out this new equation. Made by Bengaluru-based filmmaker Mujeer Pasha, the 22-minute film (featuring a mixed cast of queer and non queer actors) was completed in April this year and was screened at the Kashish Mumbai International Queer Film Festival, and now, will be screened at The Bangalore Queer Film Festival too this Sunday at Goethe Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan.
Mujeer has been making films for the past six years and has always been motivated by a wish to be better than his last film. But with this film, he is hoping for more.
“In the film, we question the whole idea of love and relationships and wanted this story to fuel a conversation or become a case study for discussion,” says the 29-year-old who works at Tessarakt Productions and studied at BTL Institute of Technology and Management. Interestingly, adds the filmmaker, the project was worked on by many women crew members, including in roles of co-director (Veena Kulkarni), DoP (Bakul Sharma) and sound recordist (Navya Sah).
This film would mark Mujeer’s fourth screening at the film festival, which incidentally, is their first edition post Section 377 being struck down. “I’m looking to celebrate at the film festival. Hopefully, now we’ll have moe Indian queer content in the mainstream too,” he says.
But it’s not just the screening that Mujeer is excited about. Calling the festival a safe space, he says, “Pride march and this festival are our two biggest events to socialise with peers and friends from the queer community,” he says. Recalling previous instances of queer gatherings, he says there was some apprehension about something going wrong. “But now, we feel more proud of what we’re doing,” he shares.
Making the film festival even more special
Bangalore Queer Film Festival will be held from July 31 to August 4 at Goethe Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, the Alliance Française de Bangalore and the Bangalore International Centre. Visitors will get a chance to watch films from 27 countries, including Iran, Lebanon, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Colombia, Austria and South Korea. Some of the Indian films that will be screened include Priya Sen’s Yeh/This Freedom Life, Debalina’s Tin Satyi… and Shilpi Gulati and Jainendra Dost’s Naach Bhikhari Naach. Some special events have been planned too since this is the 10th anniversary of the festival.
“This year, we’ve invited filmmakers who have been with us for many years and have been associated in different ways with the festival. We’ve also invited a troupe of performers from North Karnataka, so that ‘queer’ is pulled out of its English and urban rut and we get to watch and dance to Yellammanaata and Jogathi Nritya,” says Nitya Vasudevan, co-director of BQFF.