When hate gets normalised

Ritesh Sharma's The Brittle Thread show how the poison of communalism consumes everybody

Hate speech has become so normalised that in Ritesh Sharma's The Brittle Thread, which had its Indian premiere at the 26th International Film Festival of Kerala on Sunday, the cacophony of hate speeches that punctuates some outdoor scenes were not created for the film.

The director just placed in the narrative the original recordings of a few such speeches that now happen on a regular basis, like how a documentary filmmaker would do. Yet, it gels in seamlessly with the fictional elements of the film, for there are lives in it which are directly or indirectly affected by those speeches.

The title has multiple connotations here, be it the fraying communal fabric or the state of the weaving community, which is at the centre of the narrative, which follows weaver Shahdab, a loner who befriends a tourist from Israel, forming an unlikely bond. Parallel to this is the story of Rani, who makes a living performing lewd dance shows for unruly crowds.

"Weaving is central to Varanasi, where I have grown up. Even Kabir Das was a weaver. If you walk into one of the weaving communities near the Varanasi ghats, you will see their unity beyond religious lines. The weaving community did come together for this film helping us in various ways. As for the character of the dancer Rani, it has always been horrifying to see women performing in such stages, where anyone can do anything to them. I started writing the film in 2018 and shot it two years later," says Sharma, in an interview to The Hindu.

Hope is not something that the film leaves one with, although there are slivers of it in the lives of these characters, which disappear almost as soon as it appears. But more than leaving the audience with a fake sense of hope, which is absent in reality, Sharma would prefer connecting with the audience on a deeper level and leaving them with questions. He did succeed in that aspect going by the reaction of the viewers, with some of them wanting to hug him for making a film that moved them so much.

Both the protagonists, especially the weaver Shahdab, have an almost resigned expression on their faces. Shahdab had lost his parents in the riots following the Babri Masjid demolition and has seen enough already that when he is confronted by communal goons, he does not fight back, rather he tries to wriggle out. But, Rani still has some fight left in her, atleast for the sake of her daughter. But when the poison of communalism takes hold, it mercilessly sweeps away even people like them, who are not even remotely connected to the larger games at play. Even without overtly making political commentary, Sharma succeeds in conveying the intended message and shaking the viewer.

Active in the theatre circuit since 2004, Sharma has made two documentaries and two short films before making The Brittle Thread, the first draft of which he wrote in Shoranur in Kerala.