Filmmaker R Gowtham, whose debut feature, Sikkalana Kudumbathin Uruppinarhal (Members of the Problematic Family), is premiering at the 76th Berlin International Film Festival, is making history, albeit without much fanfare. The film is just the fourth ever Tamil feature to be screened at the festival, following well-regarded Tamil films like Mani Ratnam's Alaipayuthey (2001), Ameer's Paruthiveeran (2004), and PS Vinothraj's Kottukaali (2024). But Gowtham is the first Tamil director to have his debut feature screened at the Berlinale. When asked about these milestones, the director says, "I can call myself an independent director, in name only. But that won't be true because I was dependent on my crew for everything. So this milestone is shared by all of us."
Gowtham shares that his time documenting street plays helped him learn management and transform his vision throughout the crew. "Karuththadayan, who plays Sellam in Sikkalana Kudumbathin Uruppinarhal, was a longtime mentor and a roommate, with whom I worked during my time volunteering for a magazine called Manal Veedu (Sand House). There we used to write poems, short stories, and essays, among other things. When we documented Koothu (street plays) actors there, we were inspired by their self-sustaining spirit towards the art form. They used to wake up very early, get dressed, put on their own makeup, arrange the sets, all by themselves without any technicians," recalls Gowtham. He adds, "There were times on sets where I felt shouting at the crew was futile as I was just the point person, and they knew cinema more than me. But I realised the impact of meaningful collaboration rather than singular instruction."
Collaboration has been a recurring factor in Gowtham's journey. In fact, he calls Sikkalana Kudumbathin Uruppinarhal a melting pot of inputs from people he has known for a while. "I knew director Bramma, who directed Kuttram Kadithal, when he was a speech trainer at Madras University. Mime Gopi and he were my trainers during my days at DG Vaishnav College, when I used to visit multiple colleges for National Service Scheme (NSS) activities. When Kuttram Kadithal was screened at the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, I went there, and that is where I also saw films like Court (2015), which inspired me," says the director, who adds, "In fact, it was PS Vinothraj's Koozhangal (2021) that really prompted me to work on Sikkalana Kudumbathin Uruppinarhal."
Sikkalana Kudumbathin Uruppinarhal centers on a discordant funeral of a disturbed man, who created problems for everyone in his family. "I wanted to show a funeral where no one cries," says Gowtham, when asked about the inspiration for the film, adding, "This is also close to my life since I have seen certain family members being impacted by alcohol addiction. So with that as a base, I wanted to create a non-sentimental film." In pursuit of highlighting such an emotion, Gowtham cites Frederick Wiseman's style of filmmaking as being an inspiration for this film. "Along with Saravana Siddharth, who plays Dinesh, and my co-director, I used to consume the works of the documentary filmmaker. His fly-on-the-wall approach captivated me greatly, which I used in this film."
This approach to creating frames that tell a story sans emotion also included him shooting the film on real locations, with the inhabitants of those areas being a part of the film. "Since cinema has been injected into our culture so much, they knew not to look at the camera and reacted naturally. Some of them thought the funeral procession was a real one, and we were able to capture their emotions," says Gowtham.
Along with the various colourful characters in Sikkalana Kudumbathin Uruppinarhal, the setting of the film added an all-important layer. "I am a proper North Madras man. I wanted to show Chennai from Stanley Hospital to Red Hills with a fresh perspective. But I also don't have a fetish for the landscapes, hence I wasn't too keen on sacrificing realism for aesthetics. I chose this as the shooting spot because I was familiar with it."
From the red sands of North Madras, Sikkalana Kudumbathin Uruppinarhal has now reached the silver screen in Berlin. Speaking about this process, the director says, "When I completed shooting, the festivals which were on the horizon were in Locarno and Rotterdam. But I knew how to get into those festivals as I worked on the application process for Koozhangal. Even though I was familiar with that process, something I learnt during the journey for this film was that even before a film reaches an audience, it has to impress each person who is willing to take the film to different places." But despite the long journey, Gowtham signs off in a hopeful manner and says, "I hope such things are not one-off instances, but a regular occurrence. And we have another film, and another filmmaker, taking the global route before coming back home."