If you were Chuskit what is your attitude towards other boys and girls?
Chuskit was physically disabled.
Answers
True grit: (Clockwise, from right) Stills from Chuskit; Jigmet Dewa Lhamo (left), who plays the titular role of Chuskit, with Priya Ramasubban.
Disability hardly gets mainstream attention. But filmmaker Priya Ramasubban’s empathetic vision in Chuskit (2018), the story of a nine-year-old girl in Ladakh trying to overcome her physical disability to go to school, has managed to make an impact.
Inspired by the real-life story of Sonam Spalzes, a girl in Karnataka with cerebral palsy, Chuskit has been going strong in the festival circuits. It premiered at Giffoni Film Festival in Italy last year, where it won a special Amnesty International Award, won a gold for Best Feature (targeting children between 5-9 years) in the Half Ticket section at the 20th Jio Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI) Film Festival, held in October in Mumbai and was well-received at the recent Dharamshala International Film Festival. Excerpts from an interview with Ramasubban:
How did you come to be interested in filmmaking?
I was born in Chennai and lived in Delhi from Class VIII till the end of my undergraduate year. I lived in Mumbai for my post-graduation diploma. Subsequently, I moved to Delhi before going abroad to do a Masters in film and television studies. When I finished school, I forced myself to do Economics (Hons) from University of Delhi. I went to Sophia College for Women in Mumbai to do Social Communications and Media. Documentary films attracted me the most and I pursued it until I recently decided to embark on a feature film.
In your film, the community plays a crucial role in helping Chuskit go to school. How has the idea of community shaped your worldview?
I value interdependence more than independence. If we work together, we can achieve more. This does not mean giving up on one’s individuality. It means supporting an individual’s choices as best as a community can and working together to make a difference.
Would Chuskit have had greater trouble getting to school despite the ‘ease’ of life in the city?
In a city, she might have had easy access to a wheelchair, transportation or a hostel, but in the village since systems are not designed for such situations, she has more intimate connections to humans.
You have worked with economist P Sainath and filmmaker Anand Patwardhan. What did you glean from them?
I worked with Anand on Father Son and Holy War (1994) and accompanied him to various talks and events. Sainath was my professor when he was working on Everyone Loves A Good Drought (2000). He has been an incredibly inspiring figure in my life. He motivated the class to look at India not from the comforts of our urban life, but by travelling and understanding the villages and small towns.