Chhan Chhan

The prompt given was an end-sem group short film adaptation of any short story of our choice, keeping in mind the learnings over a film adaptation course.  My personal priority initially, was to use a simple yet effective source text which could both offer a space for creative adaptation and resemble the depth of the story adapted. My group mate, Sharif had recently watched our classmate Aditi, perform a Kathak piece for one of her assignments and was enamoured by the visual narrative it conveys. Sharif then proposed that we could use the form of dance in our adaptation, which I agreed was a great place to start. Sharif had also mentioned that he was keen to use the short story Lihaaf, by Ismat Chugtai. 

Due to my, and my group’s unfamiliar background or knowledge of Indian classical dance, we decided to start by speaking to classmates, Maitreyi, and Aditi who come from Bharatnatyam and Kathak backgrounds respectively. Matreyi laid out the entire historic foundation of Bharatanatyam as per her knowledge which is where my group began to draw parallels to how we could adapt it with Lihaaf. I proposed that we could resemble the age hierarchy between the protagonist in Lihaaf and her aunt, Begum Jaan with a guru and shishya dynamic present in dance. Similarly, we ideated that the maid/helper from the source text could be an assistant or advanced student of the guru. Once we had ideated the roles we would resemble, we moved on to how we could capture key narrative elements and themes. 

Sharif and I sat down and verbally ideated the progression of events that would take place, and how we would incorporate our little knowledge of dance to portray it. We deliberated how we could implement the complexity of female sexuality, age-based power dynamics, devotion and trauma, enabling the form of dance as a unique visual tool in the manner we could deal with it. We agreed the usage of shadow play from the source text was an impactful way to represent such themes, especially trauma, due to the uncanny discomfort and fear it instils in viewers. We were also interested in using aural symbols to further exemplify these themes, which is how we settled on using the sound of ghungroos. This is where we proposed the title Chhan Chhan, which would transition during the narrative from an amusing, pleasant sound to a more jarring and traumatic one. We composed the rough outline to the rest of our group, along with Aditi, who gave us insight into the role that Kathak could play in the story.

At this stage, we were satisfied with our progress and vision and met with our course Professor, Kunal Ray to propose the idea and gain any further inputs. He suggested how we could resemble our source text better, in terms of establishing a domestic space to offer an equation of proximity, the use of dialogue in enabling the narrative or in suggesting nuances of the themes, and how to develop the relationship between the guru and her assistant before introducing the student. Once we took note of the feedback, our group began preparing logistics and working on the script. 

As I was the primary script writer for the film, I faced challenges grasping how to portray our idea in written text, especially considering our dependency on dance to convey the narrative. I spoke to a couple of other dancers that I had known, which greatly helped me visualise and implement detail in how we could approach the adaptation.

We took note of nuances which differentiate the form of Bharatnatyam and Kathak (the way they spin, bend their knees, pay respects to their guru, etc.), which I used to establish the growing relationship between Kalki and Alka. Further, my mother suggested I use the Gopi Vastraharan during the climax since the narrative sequence resembled our theme appropriately. Similar to how the gopi’s are expected to venture out of the water naked and vulnerable in devotion to their lord Krishna, Kalki expresses her devotion to Alka, by completing her performance even after there is evident shame and discomfort once she has been taken advantage of. There is a clear silence between the two, where Alka dismisses this discomfort, and Kalki is not in a position to express herself. The interplay of shadows in this scene was intended as a visual tool to reflect Kalki’s mental state and disturbance which is once again repeated when she reattempts the performance the next day alone. This establishes the intrusion of her trauma into the space of her passion for learning Kathak, opening questions of devotion, sexuality and trauma. I proposed the script to my team, after which Rohan helped me refine the dialogues. 

Zahanya was primarily responsible for reaching out to actors and planning the shooting schedule with our available location, equipment and time requirements. Before shooting, we sat down with our actors to brief them of our plan, the script and which days we were aiming to shoot. At this stage, we gained more input on how to alter our dialogues (during the exposition of our story), such that they did not offend the form we were using, and said just enough to establish context for our film. We adjusted the script accordingly and began shooting.

Our single location was a campus dance studio which allowed us the freedom to shoot over a span of 3 days without too many continuity errors. Our only barrier was the mirrors in the room, which Sharif managed to skillfully leverage to work with our narrative. For example, the abundance of reflections of Kalki during her solo performance heightens the emotional intensity of her turmoil. He very carefully took over the shooting process, with the help of his friends who were familiar with using the equipment. Sharif then edited the film, which we were overall very satisfied with as a group. 

The overall process gave me a great deal of insight into not only how to work with adaptation from a text to a visual medium, but also the tedious effort and collaboration it requires to accomplish. I was very passionate about the direction my group took and found the discovery of Indian classical dance as our channel, extremely rewarding.