Cinestaan Curates: Sha Sa Ha is an attempt at rebuilding and finding oneself through adversity

Like the classic 'Do-Re-Mi' song from The Sound Of Music (1965), which goes, 'Let’s start at the very beginning / A very good place to start / When you read you begin with A B C...', Ratheesh Ravindran’s docu-fiction Sha Sa Ha is an attempt to go back to the beginning and find a way to rebuild oneself in the wake of the debilitating pandemic which has left countless lives and livelihoods in a shambles.

The title of the film refers to the Malayalam alphabet, signifying the need to find new ways of navigating an altered world.

The lockdown has been an especially trying period for creative artistes who thrive on performances and the practice of their art. At first glance, a filmmaker who is unable to shoot because of the pandemic-inspired lockdown does not seem to have anything in common with a former principal of a school for the blind, a Kuttiyam artist, an ex-water polo coach for the Indian Air Force, a Haka dance performer, an aspiring actor or a fashion designer. Yet, with people from various walks of life, the innovative docu-fiction pulls at the threads that bind them all and brings their seemingly disparate experiences together.

Confinement, transformation, experimentation, creativity, art, a return to the analogue, the past and the present, nostalgia, all these themes come together to make us reflect on so many people affected by the pandemic, including the differently abled.

Part lockdown diary, part fiction and reflection, the film mobilizes found footage that was shot earlier and presents it through a unique lens.

With autobiographical elements, the film offers moments of self-reflection as well, where we are told that its shooting is therapeutic for the filmmaker who has been working his way through the pandemic by being engaged in a creative exercise.

Along the way, it allows for novel ways of reflecting on the characteristics of the virus and presents vignettes of how people have pivoted to cope with the lockdown.

An alumnus of the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Kolkata, Ratheesh Ravindran’s previous films have been screened at various festivals across the world.

Sha Sa Ha, with a runtime of 40 minutes, is currently available on Neestream.