Stills from the film
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Cinema is available in all shapes, varieties and genres. Ditto for Kannada cinema, which prior to now decade has pushed the envelop in new and thrilling methods. And whereas anthologies, is perhaps outdated hat, what about hyperlink cinema? Kenja Chethan Kumar’s defines his newest film, Chow Chow Bath, as a hyperlink film.
Antholgies, Chethan says are a assortment of unconnected tales put collectively as a assortment of movies. “In a hyperlink, you have parallel tracks going on concurrently on screen, which converge as the film progresses,” Chethan says on the screening of his film on the Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFFes 2024). “This format has not been explored in Kannada cinema and we are thrilled to see the audience’ reaction.”
Kenja Chethan Kumar
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
Chow Chow Bath, options actors together with Aruna Balraj, Sagar Gowda, Sushmitha Bhat, Dhanush S Baikampady and Sankalp Sharma, was nominated within the Kannada Cinema Competition class. “We are thrilled being able to screen the film at this festival. We saw huge footfalls and hope to see the same when the film releases commercially on March 15.”
The title of the film, Chethan says is impressed by the well-known dishes of Karnataka, khara bathtub and kesari bathtub. “They are opposites in flavour and texture and yet are served on one plate as that is how people like it. The title represents the same aspect of our film. The convergence of three parallel tracks in one frame. It’s also a romantic comedy. There are six major characters and you feel that their stories are independent of each other, till you hit the pre-climax.”
The film is written, directed and edited by Chethan, who hails from Mangaluru from a place referred to as Kenja, which he additionally makes use of as a prefix to his title. He comes from an agricultural background. “Though I never met my grandfather, Kemthur Doddanna Shetty, as he had passed away before I was born. I heard interesting tales of his tryst with theatre in our village. He was a playwright, actor, singer and a director who wrote plays in Tulu and one of his plays is believed to be staged 6,666 times in and around Mangaluru. It was this history that got me hooked to theatre initially, but I also wanted to branch out to cinema.”
Chethan says that he couldn’t afford to coach himself with a skilled filmmaking course and was eager on working as a film editor. “While researching on the topic of film editors and directors, I discovered that Rajkumar Hirani is an editor turned director. I started reading more about him, his works, his films and he became my hero and inspiration.”
Chethan determined that he would additionally work as a film editor, equip himself with the talents required after which direct a film. “Later I learned that Subash Ghai and Sirish Kunder are also film editors turned directors, and I knew I could also achieve my dream if I could land a job as a film editor anywhere. That is when I started working with the late Gopi Prabhu, who became my mentor and guide. After which, I branched out to work with Asianet Suvarna, TV9 Kannada, Star India Pvt Ltd”.
After seven years of working as film and TV editor, Chethan debuted as a director with Prema Geema Jaane Do in 2016, which was adopted by Devaru Bekagiddare. Chow Chow Bath, with music by Hemanth Jois and cinematography by Rudramuni Belagere is produced by Horizzon Movies and releases on March 15.