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Lilkee
Batul Mukhtiar, Direction
1995
 Watching
the children around me, my daughter Aiman and
her friends were growing up in a tower complex,
going to school with kids from similar backgrounds,
not really knowing a world outside their own so
I wanted to write a story with these kids, for
them, about them, instead of just saying, oh,
it was different when we were kids. Also, long
ago, I hired a little girl to look after Aiman
when she was a baby at the FTII. I could not cope
with the guilt for more than a few months. Maybe
this is my way of repenting. Children specially
these days, have lesser opportunity to mix with
children from other worlds. The walls are higher.
But I would like to believe that when they do
cross those walls, it is not too difficult for
them to understand, empathize or help.
Like all film-makers, I've been working on scripts,
proposals for feature films. I gave my story Lilkee
to CFSI, they liked it, and so, I've made a children's
film. I think, the most important reason that
I've made a children's film, and not a feature
film, is - Funding! The money from CFSI is very
little, and it is a bureaucratic set-up, but yes,
you do have the freedom to tell your own story,
in your own way.
Lilkee is about an 11-year-old village
girl, Lilkee, brought to the city by
a working couple to take care of their baby. The
couple lives in an up-market residential complex,
in the city. The wife Bela is an architect and
the husband Tutu, a corporate executive. Lilkee
makes friends with the children in the complex,
who through her realize that life is not as easy
for lots of other children as it is for them.
Lilkee too is fascinated by many things
in the city, which she shares with her mother
and sister, Billo, in the village, through letters.
Gradually, the couple realizes that they can give
a better future to Lilkee and decide to send her
to school.
 The
film was shot in 18 days, in Pune, Korlai and
Garhwal. I still need to do patchwork for one
more day. We tried synch sound for 2-3 days, but
gave up because we did not have the infrastructure
or the budget for it. In Pune, we were shooting
in a very expensive apartment complex, where we
had permission to shoot only from 9 to 6, and
take in a unit of only 30 people. We've shot the
exterior sequences in available light; the only
schedule where we had even a track and trolley.
In the interior, we could not even put up a painting
on the wall, leave alone lights, or take in a
track-trolley, so we've worked around that.
The only way that we've been able to pull off
this shoot with 5 children, a baby, some puppies
plus some very physically taxing locations, is
through extensive rehearsals. Children, adults,
even the kids in the apartment complex, who worked
as ‘extras’ for the football match,
birthday party and letter-writing song, all rehearsed
over a month. Apart from the children, I chose
to work with an adult cast who would give me a
lot of rehearsal time, who would support me in
what I was doing, who would not be on their cell
phones all the time, and all that for very little
money. In fact, two of my actors also doubled
up as my assistants, working with rehearsals,
continuity and costumes. The children are all
non-actors, and were thrilled to put in as much
time as I asked for. An added advantage of rehearsals
was the fine-tuning of script and dialogues, until
we were ready to roll. As for my crew, they are
all FTII colleagues, whose work I like and whom
I am comfortable working with.
The important thing was, the children had loads
of fun, shooting. Of course, tempers were shaky
at times, there were tears, but no tantrums and
all of them fussed endlessly about how they were
looking. The worst thing I did was give one of
the girls, Sani, lollipops to suck all through
the film. That made all the other kids jealous
and led to a lot of fights and demands. While
in Pune, it was difficult to fulfill the demands
because those lollipops were not available there.
I tried to make it up by giving all of them lollipops
in the beach song at Korlai. The combination of
two strenuous days of climbing up and down the
fort and rocks in the sun, swimming in the sea,
and sucking those giant lollipops all the way
home, led to all of them being sick for the next
couple of days!
At Korlai beach, a local goon chose ‘magic
hour’ to stop our shoot. He was getting
violent and threatening. But the kids were unfazed.
Aiman said, "Come on, come on, take, we are
ready." We rolled the camera, and the kids
gave the perfect take, while my brother, Ali distracted
the goon. That's a moment we are all proud of.
The kids understood our pressures most times,
and this time, they overdid themselves.
 Shooting
in Garhwal was idyllic of course - good food,
beautiful locations, good weather, a small crew,
so very low-stress. But it also brought a dark
moment for me. For a few shots, we wanted to shoot
at Kartikeyaswami temple which is a two hour climb.
I went for the recce, and hurt my back in a fall.
For the next couple of days, I kept trying to
find a justification for not shooting there at
all. Ultimately, Vivek persuaded me to let him
go with the crew, Aiman and some village people
and shoot without me, one late afternoon. I sat
alone in a car in the village below the temple,
feeling ashamed and very sorry for myself. As
evening fell, and the village became pitch dark,
I remembered Zanussi telling us at a FTII workshop
how directors' approach to shot-taking changes
with time, and age. When I saw the torch lights
of the crew coming down the hill, I ran to welcome
them, happy that those two hours of darkness and
aloneness were over.
I am particularly happy with how we've been able
to use the Garhwal footage, which were all montage
shots, to enhance the film both emotionally and
visually. It was more than had been planned in
the script. We had two shots with in-camera multiple
exposure, which have also come out very clean,
thanks to Nair Saab. There is an enormous relief
that nothing has gone drastically wrong. The children
too performed well, and brought their own energy
to a script which is essentially, very simple.
Of course, I wish we had more money, more time,
more resources, more man power. I also wish we
had shot the film chronologically, as it would
have helped Aiman a lot with her characterization.
The poor kid was groping in the dark, trying to
imagine what it was like to be Lilkee. But she
watched the Chinese film, Not One Less
a few days before the shoot, which helped her
a bit.
I'm still not sure what happens to a CFSI film,
in the ever after. I think I've got to push it
as the film maker, with CFSI cheering me on, if
something good comes out of it. So, I'll do the
rounds, and cross my fingers that someone somewhere
sees fit to release it. I've tried to make a film
that kids will enjoy, even though it's not fantasy
or adventure, or high voltage drama. Let's hope
distributors agree with my opinion.
GraFTII Factor in Lilkee
Batul Mukhtiar – Direction, 1995
Vivek Shah – Motion Picture Photography,
1995
Hemanti Sarkar – Editing, 1994
Vipin Bhati – Sound Recording and Sound
Engineering, 1998
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Bravo
Comment by :
Rukshana
I can understand how difficult it must had been to shoot a film with kids and low budget.But congratulations you guys pulled it through..Cheers...we all would like to watch Lilkee really soon...ALL THE BEST
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