The bold, brave and beautiful

We are in a familiar room when we connect with the multihyphenate Sapna Moti Bhavnani over a Zoom call early on Thursday morningBehind her is a mannequin standing against a window the walls are a shade of mint green or probably fernmdashitrsquos hard to tellmdashand the space despite the overcast sky outside is welllit by ceiling spotlights This until she switches them off because the glare is blinding her laptop screenSapna BhavnaniBarely 12 hours ago wersquod been in this same room but in a film watching two lovers traverse isolationmdashthe kind many of us experienced during the Coronavirusinduced lockdown Only here therersquos a difference ldquoSapnarsquos house was a character in itself in the filmrdquo feels Rajshri Deshpande who has joined us for the video chat along with Anshuman Jha The two actors play the couple in Bhavnanirsquos new outing as filmmaker titled My Dog is Sick 64 minutes ldquoIt felt like Anshuman and I were playing in her house Every object in her home be it the bed her side table or cupboard relayed an emotion We didnrsquot feel like we were alone At one point I had this feeling of being surrounded by hundreds of people when there was nobody really I think thatrsquos because Sapna has been through so much and all those experiences shine through in whatever she does even her homerdquo Deshpande feelsMy Dog is Sick comes close on the heels of Sindhustan 2019 Bhavnanirsquos last featurelength documentary about the migration story of the Sindhi community told through her own familial history and the tattoos on her body The film travelled to 21 festivals and won nine awards Her new film is genredefying Renowned Australian film critic Alexandra HellerNicholas who found it to be a ldquoradicalising experiencerdquo said it could ldquosuperficially be described as a feminist experimental horror filmrdquo Yet itrsquos hard to pigeonhole this one Not only is her cinematic language unlike anything wersquove been exposed to the theme is also largely alien to the Indian audienceActors Rajshri Deshpande and Anshuman Jha play a couple traversing isolationThe filmmaker explores the idea of dominance and submission in relationships But this is just not sexual as understood in the BDSM Bondage and Discipline Dominance and Submission Sadochism and Masochism subculture Itrsquos also emotional The idea she admits fell onto her lap at a bar ldquoI was having my drink when this older woman came up to me and said lsquoHey Can you see any guy out here who I can pick up and who is older than my 36yearold sonrsquo She immediately had my attention I got so intrigued by her that I asked her if shersquod role play for me just for fun There was this young boy out there and I said lsquoImagine you are in love with this boy and he is treating you like crap But you are like this dog who feels only love What would happenrsquo Taking a few swigs of her drink the womanreplied nonchalantly lsquoIf a dog can love you unconditionally it can bite you too But I wonrsquot bite this man I will eat him uprsquo When she said this everyone listening to us including this boy fell silent Then she said the most amusing thing lsquoPhir main bahar jakar ek golden tatti loongi I will go out and take a golden dump I have eaten digested and thrown this boy outrsquordquoldquoBut why goldenrdquo Bhavnani remembers asking her ldquoShe said lsquoBecause thatrsquos how I feel Sapna Thatrsquos how I feelrsquordquo The production team ended up creating this golden poop just for the film from glitter and clay and which she admits took three weeks to perfect eventually becoming part of the teaserAnshuman JhaWith My Dog is Sick Bhavnani has also become the first Indian woman director to premiere her film at the New Horizons International Film Festival held this month in Poland The movie has no dialogue relying solely on the acting prowess of the cast and the background score which is haunting to say the leastBoth Jha and Deshpande admit they had no knowledge about the world that Bhavnani was trying to recreate ldquoI have been a dominatrix the person who takes the dominant role in a BDSM relationship beforerdquo says Bhavnani ldquoA lot of people think if you are a dom you are incharge and in a position of power But if you understand BDSM the one who is submissive also known as the sub really enjoys all of that while not doing any work So who really is in control here and who is the power figure These are important questions to examine even in regular relationships and liferdquoDeshpande and Bhavnani are seen wearing an identical pink wig in the filmJha who has previously worked in an erotica film Mastram 2020 says that being an actor gives you the opportunity to visit worlds that are otherwise unfamiliar to you ldquoI see it as a human experience Sapna is someone I trust and when you collaborate for a project like this it becomes a very important factor So when she came to me with the idea Irsquoll be honest I didnrsquot understand a lot of it BDSM But there are so many things that I donrsquot know aboutlike football Does that mean Irsquod never play a footballer in a film Of course I would In this case I had a director for whom this was also experiential so I trusted her visionrdquo he says adding ldquoThere was nothing overtly vulgar in the film Aesthetic is a very thin line I had someone like Sapna and Rajshri around I am always very comfortable when intelligent women are handling a filmrdquo For Bhavnani consent was most important when attempting such a film ldquoI was very particular about itrdquo says the filmmaker ldquoAnd I am not just talking about consent between the actors but also whether I as a director could touch them or if the DOP could shoot in a certain way Every single person on the set took consent from each other while shooting the film Thatrsquos what made us a family we all were comfortable knowing that everyone would do their best in making sure that everything is projected correctlyrdquoRajshri DeshpandeBhavnani who is also a leading celebrity hairstylist and the founder of Mad O Wot salon also makes an appearance in the film wearing an identical pink wig as Deshpande For the viewer it appears that Bhavnani is mirroring the protagonistrsquos insecurities but then she also seems like a twin roaming in the same space as her doing the same things like the character swinging sleeping and introspecting opening up the film toseveral interpretationsThe propsmdashfrom the mask muzzle collar to the wig and netted skinmdashadd more layers to the conversation Bhavnani feels that people often disguise themselves in masks to hide their bruises ldquoStrong is the weakest maskrdquo she says Deshpande adds ldquoSlowly as the film progressed I discarded them all But that posed many questions Can we do that forever How many times do we have to shed our skin to feel free I kept asking the same questions again and again after our shoot and they will haunt me forever till the time I will really know the meaning of freedom and can meander gently into liferdquoJha feels that the freedom in the film came from how fluid it was ldquoEven the cat another character and Bhavnanirsquos house pet was free to actrdquo says Jha adding ldquoThatrsquos what convinced me about the script It was honest and pure and got me out of my comfort zone It also touched on the aspect of pain Pain is not necessarily negative It can be therapeutic if embraced and this is one such nuanced work that reflects that Itrsquos silent literally and thatrsquos its biggest strength in a world which is screaming to be heardrdquo