Chhan Chhan
Short film adapted from Lihaaf, by Ismat Chugtai. The ideation and final product were a collaborative effort, in which I was selectively responsible for writing the script.
script
1. INT. DANCE STUDIO – DAYTIME
A group of Bharatnatyam dancers, with emphasis (close-up shots) on feet and hand movements, with transition/cut/dissolve to the shadow of their movements. The other dancers gradually leave, focusing on Kalki and her shadow movements.
Title card.
Kalki practises a choreography, rapid cuts with beats, her costume is traditional (Bharatnatyam attire – casual), and she has a stern, concentrated expression on her face. There is a small speaker in the corner of the room playing soft classical music.
2. INT. DANCE STUDIO – NEXT DAY
Kalki is practising again alone after her class. Repeat shots of choreography from the day before, only change costume, hair, etc. Alka enters the room with an assistant (Kathak attire – casual), pauses after seeing Kalki still in the room. Kalki is too involved in her performance to notice for a few seconds. Alka carefully watches Kalki for those seconds. The ghungru sound from Alka diverts Kalki’s attention, which makes her stop dancing. Kalki glances at the time and realises she has overshot her time there.
KALKI
I’m sorry, did you need the room?
Alka walks in without much of a reaction (maybe just offers an expression back). She begins to prepare for her practice (putting on ghungru, fixing hair, etc.). The assistant follows. A little frazzled, Kalki goes to switch off her music and begins to gather her things. The assistant goes to switch on the music. Alka positions herself in the centre of the room, begins stretching/warming up. The assistant follows, and they both warm up together. The assistant often assists Alka during. Kalki begins packing her things, zipping up her bag, etc. She hears the sound of Alka’s ghungrus. Her head turns in response, seeing Alka and the assistant dancing. There is visual emphasis on Alka’s grace and beauty as seen through Kalki’s eyes (brighter lighting, glow, and slow motion). The performance finishes. Alka approaches Kalki before she can leave.
ALKA
Come here.
Alka beckons Kalki, sits, and takes a sip of water. Kalki follows, stands awkwardly. The assistant sits beside Alka, she takes Alka’s foot into her lap, and takes off her ghungrus. She mindlessly begins to massage Alka’s feet.
ALKA
You may sit, beta. (gestures)
Kalki sits on her knees, attentive.
ALKA
I see I’ve caught your interest (she smiles). I’m Alka…your name?
KALKI (EMBARRASED)
Kalki, ma’am.
ALKA
How long have you been practising Bharatnatyam for?
KALKI
Around 5 years now.
ALKA
Under which guru’s tutelage do you practice?
KALKI
Guru Kunali. We have our practices from 2-3:30 every day.
ALKA
Ah, that’s why I caught you lurking around.
KALKI (EMBARRASED)
I never knew Kathak could be so… (looking for the word) evocative?
ALKA
Yes…you may not be familiar, I teach the Tawaif form of Kathak, are you aware?
KALKI
Not really, Alka ji.
ALKA
See, similar to how Bharatnatyam performers have origins as devadasis: temple dancers, the performers of Kathak were courtesans, known as tawaifs. But during the British Raj, some tawaifs began to practice mujra, which is more… erotic, or ‘evocative’ as you say (making fun).
Kalki laughs.
KALKI
Your performance… something about the bhaav, it felt different.
ALKA
If you trace back to Kathak’s Mughal origins, or its Sufi influence, the expression of love toward God transcends just devotion…which is what you will be familiar with in Bharatnatyam. Whereas here, the God and the lover are sometimes seen as one, we have the liberty to engage with the deity as their lover. What you may be observing is ada, which is exclusive to Kathak.
KALKI
How do I learn it?
ALKA (LAUGHS)
Well, that takes a great deal of time and dedicated precision to develop thehrav, and furthermore to achieve ada. These are ways in which we emote, or maintain elegance and control over our rhythm during performances. So that I can bring you, my audience, bhaav. Ada is not achieved in Bharatnatyam.
KALKI
Then…can I learn from you, Alka ji? I promise to be dedicated.
Alka smiles.
ALKA
I’ll see you at 4 tomorrow.
4. EXT. DANCE STUDIO – EVENING, NEXT DAY
ESTABLISHING SHOT/INSERT SHOT (SYMBOLIC METAPHOR)
Match cut using gungrus (Feet shot)
5. INT. DANCE STUDIO MONTAGE
The assistant and Alka are practising a choreography. Kalki sits in a corner of the room, watching. Kalki’s feet tap restlessly to the beats, she imitates their movements subtly.
6. INT. DANCE STUDIO – EVENING, NEXT DAY
Alka arrives without the assistant. Kalki, as before, retreats to her corner of the room. Alka begins her practice. At a point during her practice, Alka hesitates. She attempts a step a few times, but seems to be frustrated.
ALKA
Kalki, can you come here?
KALKI (SURPRISED)
Yes, sure, ma’am.
Kalki gathers herself, approaches Alka. Alka guides her closer.
ALKA
This piece is my first experimental ensemble work, not common in traditional Kathak practice. So I would need a partner for this part…for now, you’ll have to fill in. Did you follow?
Kalki nods eagerly. She had already somewhat grasped the steps, but her movements were rigid. Alka touches her waist to encourage more flow. Kalki jerks slightly at the touch.
KALKI (SOFLY)
Sorry…
Alka begins to adjust Kalki’s movements. Out of habit, Kalki bends her knees, spins on her toes and emotes expressively. Accordingly, Alka corrects her.
ALKA
See here? In Kathak, you don’t bend your knees this way.
Alka uses her knee to nudge the back of Kalki’s knee. She similarly nudges her foot to the back of Kalki’s foot so that she drops from her toes and uses her heels during spins. The shots are cut one after the other, each time Alka adjusts Kalki. Kalki is initially frustrated, but the shots repeat, showing her quickly catch up. Alka is ready to adjust her, but Kalki has already caught on. At one point, Alka ceases her own performance in order to watch Kalki. Kalki, engrossed and dedicated to completing the sequence, has almost perfected the piece. Yet, Alka’s expression shows discontent. Kalki’s performance ends.
ALKA
You’re almost there, but one thing is missing. I want to try something tomorrow. Come again, same time.
KALKI
Yes, Alka ji.
Kalki kneels all the way down to touch Alka’s feet (with her head) in a gesture of respect. Alka laughs and adjusts her once again, prompting her to stand upright and bend rather than bend all the way, showing her how it’s done in Kathak. Kalki leaves smiling/beaming.
7. INT. DANCE STUDIO – NEXT DAY, EVENING
Alka is in the middle of the room with Kalki, setting her bag down/getting ready. We see Alka trace the room, humming to herself as Kalki watches her. Kalki finishes getting ready and walks up to Alka who is now standing still (Alka asks Kalki to perform a specific narrative sequence: Gopi Vastraharana (‘theft of the gopi’s clothes’), which recounts Krishna’s playful theft of the clothes of the female cowherds, the gopi’s, who had left their clothes on the Yamuna River bank while bathing. Krishna places them high in the branches of a tree, in which he is seen perched, daring the gopis to venture from the water. Metaphorically, this story serves to convey the power of devotion, to stand vulnerable before one’s God, secure in the power of bhakti, the unquestioning devotion to one’s god.)
ALKA
Today, we will perform one of my favourite sequences. The Gopi Vastraharna. Are you familiar with it?
KALKI (SOFLY)
Yes Alka ji, a little…
ALKA (CUTTING HER OFF)
It is a tale that follows lord Krishna’s theft of the female cowherder’s , the gopi’s clothes.
Grabs her hands/shoulders from the back and begins circling her.
ALKA
I want you to embody the Gopis in this sequence. I want you to feel their vulnerability and devotion to lord Krishna.
Alka walks away to turn the music on as we focus on an intimidated Kalki.
ALKA (OS)
Remember! your bhaav must reflect the Gopis’ emotions as they stand exposed before Lord Krishna.
Kalki seems to have the hang of everything, except her bhaav; she is too naturally/habitually emotive. At one point during the performance of this narrative, Alka stops her.
ALKA (SUCKING HER TEETH)
Kalki, your expressions are too pronounced. In Kathak, ada (grace) requires subtlety and control. Let your body speak as much as your face.
(PAUSES)
Here, let me come help you, I will play the role of Krishna.
KALKI (SHEEPISLY)
Yes, Alka ji.
Alka offers to come on stage with Kalki to help Kalki better visualise the role of Krishna. She criticises Kalki for emoting too superficially, and that if she must master ada, she will be required to immerse herself more subtly, with better control of her emotional range and expression. Similarly, Alka encourages her to try and use her body/movements to emote instead. The shadow play begins here, intercutting the performance with shadows of it on the wall. The music, along with the performance, reaches a crescendo. Alka’s touch in the shadow shot is explicitly inappropriate. The chun chun of the ghunghru is especially loud. Kalki jerks in reaction; her movements are hindered, but she continues. The performance ends. This is in parallel to the part of The Gopi Vastraharana, where the gopis are expected to venture out of the water naked and vulnerable in devotion to their lord, Krishna. Kalki’s shame is evident after she has been touched, but in devotion to her guru, she completes her performance.
ALKA (STERNLY)
So? Did you finally understand?
KALKI (DISTURBED, AFTER THE TOUCH)
I… I understand, Alka ji
Kalki has her head held low, eyes wide like a deer in headlights. In her disturbed state, Kalki hastily gathers her things to leave. She bends in respect, about to touch Alka’s feet. Halfway almost entirely down, she remembers, and straightens her knees. She touches Alka’s feet and leaves.
KALKI
Thank you, Alka ji. I’ll be off.
Alka notices the disturbance, but remains quiet. The door closes behind Kalki.
INT. DANCE STUDIO – DAY
Kalki arrives at the studio during a time when no one is occupying it (outside class hours). She enters, sets her things aside and places her speaker at the corner of the room. She begins to prepare herself for a solo practice. While she is tying her ghunghurs, she gets frustrated by the knots in them. She makes a few attempts to untangle them, but in her irritation and distracted/troubled mental state, she ties them as is. On stage (at the centre of the studio), Kalki begins her practice. Once again, the performance is intercut with shots/flashbacks of Kalki’s previous session with Alka. Each time she was touched is now played back as disturbing or uncertain. The shadows appear on the wall in intervals, until she notices Alka’s shadow joining her. The shadow touches her, shocking Kalki out of her performance. Her ghunghru breaks. She turns back to see that there is no one behind her. Heavily breathing, Kalki has entirely snapped out of her performance. The shot lingers on her, and then fades to black.
INT. DANCE STUDIO – AFTERNOON
Establish time jump: 1 week later.
Back to the class of Bharatnatyam students. Similar shots to the opening sequence. The class is following a choreography. Focus is on Kalki as she follows the steps. She catches on quickly as always, but she hesitates when it comes to her spins, the way she bends her knees, and the lack of facial expression. Guru Kunali watches her from across the room. She makes a gesture with her hand toward her face to encourage Kalki to emote more. Finally, she walks toward Kalki and places her hand on her waist to adjust her posture. Kalki jerks at the touch. The ghungru sound is heard.
END.
Process
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.