International premiere

A SON FOR HUNTING

Vettaikku Oru Magan

Soudhamini

INDIA
2008
Colour
DV
53’

Original version
Malayalam songs
Sanskrit verses
Subtitles
English
Photography, sound, editing
Soudhamini

Production
Quicksilver Films
Distribution
Soudhamini

Cast
Margi Madhu,
Kurichi Nadesan

Filmography
MEDITATIONS ON THE TIGER, 2006
THE DEEP FEMININE, 2006
MADURAI – MYTHIC CITY, 2005
SAGA OF A POET, 2002-2001
GOING TO SCHOOL, 2000-2001

In the famous Indian epic the Mahabarata there is an episode which describes how the hunter and head of the clan Ekalavya forces himself to sever his own thumb, so that the superior skill of the archer prince Arjuna prevails unrivalled. The film retells this story and reinterprets it. It suggests that up until now the hunter’s sacrifice was actually a deliberate act of conscious disarmament in favour of a better balance of power, in order to show the prince the futility of war and make him favour peace and serenity, as confirmed by the fable’s happy end.
If this fable includes convoluted twists and turns and intentions as laudable as they are complex, the key question is how then can they be placed, (and, indeed, how not?), against the backdrop of modern day India’s political reality? The director Soudhamini has nonetheless chosen not to use any dialogue. Employing a variety of traditional theatrical techniques, and only one main actor, what is explored and revisited here are the infinite resources of the expressiveness of silent cinema. Facial expressions as many and varied as Lon Chaney’s, precise gestures, multiple poses unfold before us recounting the episodes of the fable using a single moving space: the actor’s body.

Jean-Pierre Rehm