Butterfly or worm?

Illustration/Uday Mohite

Roopanthara (Metamorphosis), a feature film in Kannada (with English subtitles) that released in theatres last week, is a superb debut by Mithilesh Edalavath. It presents an anthology of four stories, held together by a metaphorical tale on the power of storytelling itself. It is showing in Karnataka, Chennai and Kochi for now. And it is presented by Raj B Shetty (Garuda Gamana Vrishabha Vahana), who also did the dialogues and additional screenplay, as well as plays a familiar goon.

The film opens with a dystopian future - convincingly created - taken over by violent gangs, where the air is grey with smog, and water is smuggled. A goon holds an old man at gun point - simply because he can do so - and orders him to tell him a story: he is a modern-day Scheherazade; if the goon is entertained, the man's life will be spared. But the threat "I'll shoot you if I'm bored" also seems to refer to modern audiences with short attention spans, who'll ‘shoot' the filmmaker if they're bored with his story. Edalavath need not worry on that count at all. Each story is an existential reflection on different kinds of violence and death - and also considers whether we can evolve into our higher selves through compassion--yet the stories are moving, and even wrenching. The old man gives the goon a small cocoon to explain a key metaphor: life gives us opportunities to become a butterfly or remain a worm; what we become is up to us. This segues into the four stories illustrating the central idea.

The first story is a dark comedy about a man on a short fuse, who gets into a ridiculous fight and pays a high price. An old farmer couple visit Bengaluru for the first time, and must cope with unexpected tragedy. A young boy who is addicted to drugs and the dark World Wide Web, executes dangerous "tasks" assigned by an online stranger. A beggar woman with a fair complexioned child is accused of kidnapping it.

The story of the man on a short fuse (Raj B Shetty) who attacks a geeky passer-by (Jaishankar Aryar, director of Shivamma), reflects on growing number of short-fused nutters you see around today in real life and social media, as well as the mutually destructive nature of violence, with some laugh out loud moments. The farmer couple must deal with a tragedy in which they must cope with the paradox of whether it is kindness to kill a suffering loved one. The drug-addicted boy who follows dangerous tasks given by an online stranger, alerts us to the addictive power of drugs and computers and phones, as we swiftly lose control of ourselves and follow online algorithms, instructions, prompts, reels and advertising. Its young protagonist (Anjan Bharadwaj, terrific) also made me reflect on Avalokitesvara, a Bodhisattva who postpones his own nirvana in order to help others achieve salvation. And the story of the dark-skinned beggar woman with the fairer complexioned baby illustrates how the poor - and single women--are easily destroyed by our judgemental, patriarchal and entitled society.

Edalavath's direction is confident, even if some of the stories are a bit uneven. Occasionally, he does squeeze our emotions, as in the story of the old couple. Edalavath's writing is mostly excellent, with solid investment in both ideas and emotion. The acting is good - with superb turns by Lekha Naidu as the beggar woman, Somashekhar Bolegaon and Hanumakka as the farmer couple, and Anjan Bharadwaj. Bharath GB is superb as a constable who redeems himself. But many others in the ensemble cast are excellent too. Praveen Shriyan's cinematography is good, as is the editing by Bhuvanesh Manivannan and Praveen Shriyan. Midhun Mukundan's music is effective, but understatement would have been more effective. Congratulations to the producers including Suhan Prasad and Parth Jani (Mango Pickle Entertainment, Jani Entertainment and Lighter Buddha Films) for backing this film. I couldn't find any women crew listed, but happy to be corrected. Go see this film for a thoughtful yet moving film.

Meenakshi Shedde is India and South Asia Delegate to the Berlin International Film Festival, National Award-winning critic, curator to festivals worldwide and journalist.
Reach her at meenakshi.shedde@mid-day.com