Days after Marathi film Nude was dropped from International Film Festival of India 2017, director Ravi Jadhav gives us a glimpse of it with a teaser. The film was dropped at the behest of Information and Broadcasting ministry from the final list of IFFI despite being chosen by the jury. Head of the jury of IFFI’s Indian Panorama, Sujoy Ghosh, has resigned after this decision.
But first the teaser -- when it opens, the tranquility of a village pond calms our senses. Next, a beautiful woman fills the frame as she prepares to jump into the pond for a swim. The said lady, in a Marathi-style sari, takes the plunge. We realise she is married and self-willed -- she wears a bichua (worn by many married Hindu women), there’s a speechless confrontation with a man, perhaps her husband. In one of the frames, we also see her idling on a swing by the pond. Next, as black beads scatter, a locket is seen lying on the floor even as a sari pallu glides past. Soon after, in the glow of the evening sun, the silhouette of a woman and a boy can be seen as they walk away. It becomes obvious that the two are leaving for somewhere. Perhaps, he is her son -- we see him resting his head on her shoulder.
The next frame shows us what looks like an urban slum -- a cluster of shanties by a drain. Soon enough an elderly woman is seen speaking: “You are here with me now. Your aunt is a strong lady.” Lying on the ground in the dead of the night, a younger woman asks a lady sleeping next to her: “Akke (aunt), what do you do for a living?”
In the next scene, we are at the famed Sir JJ School of Art in Mumbai -- a vintage colonial building, foliage all around with the name plate dominating. A woman is then seen sweeping the floor as a painting of a woman, half covering her body, coyly glances at the onlooker. Next, a hesitant lady makes her way into the precincts. Three art students with canvases spread are busy painting as a woman at the far end poses. It is not clear if she is clothed. A pair of dazed eyes takes in the picture.
Seconds later, Naseeruddin Shah, probably an art teacher, is seen speaking to someone. He says: “Dear, clothes are meant to cover the body, not the soul. And I, through my art, attempt to seek the soul. Do you understand?”
Nude can make us uncomfortable, but bad it isn’t. That’s the message, one gets seeing the teaser.
Jadhav’s film, which had been picked as the opening film of the upcoming International Film Festival of India (IFFI 2017) in Goa, has been removed by the Information and Broadcasting ministry along with Sanal Sasidharan’s S Durga, leading to three members – including Ghosh – resigning from the jury.
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