The Sundance kid

Vivek Fernandes

"With Birju, I tried to discover a child's world. To explore how a child thinks, what intrigues and distracts him. I wanted to portray a child free from adult company and to create a character who is viscerally connection with the world," says 25-year-old filmmaker Heeraz Marfatia.

Marfatia's debut short film Birju was selected from 2,100 entries in the short film category to premiere at this year's Sundance Film Festival. It has now also been invited to the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, 2002, and the International Children's Film Festival 2002, in India.

The Sundance Film Festival is the most prestigious showcase for independent films in the United States. Held in Utah and founded by actor Robert Redford, the festival drew over 20,000 people last year to its select films developed outside of mainstream Hollywood.

Marfatia's film is a day in four-year-old Birju's life. Shot in Pushkar, the camera follows the young lad as he makes his way through the town's winding streets, passing by sweet shops, animals, folk dancers, tourists and other children in search of his mother.

Marfatia, a resident of Ajmer, grew up with cinema around him. His family still owns a theatre in his hometown. After studying at Mayo College, he moved to Mumbai to complete his Bachelors in Political Science from St Xavier's College. He then worked as a graphic designer and production assistant, when he was introduced to filmmaking.

In 1999, he decided to apply to film schools abroad. He was accepted at San Francisco State University in July 2000 for the Master of Fine Arts in Cinema degree. He had to make his first film in Fall 2000 for his MFA programme. He wrote the script for Birju in a few days in San Francisco and decided to use the Christmas break to fly back to India and shoot the film. He also wanted a foreign cinematographer to shoot his film so that he or she would be able to use the light more creatively.

Marfatia met his cinematographer Svetlana Cvetko in San Francisco, through a professor from film school. She in turn introduced him to the film's editor David Scott Smith. The rest of the film's crew were from India: Assistant director Vidura Jung Bahadur, executive producer Shubhra Swarup, production managaer Arif Ali, location and casting manager Sanjay Singh Badnor, were all Heeraz's pals who teamed up to help his maiden venture.

Marfatia wanted to make his film in 35mm but couldn't afford to buy film stock. But ten filmmakers from Mumbai and a contribution from Kodak India made the film possible. Adlabs agreed to process the negatives and most of the shooting equipment was gratis, thanks to the people Marfatia had previously worked with.

Locating a suitable boy to play Birju was a challenge. He was determined not to use 'actors' for his film --- he wanted the locals of Pushkar, playing "filmic versions of themselves".

Screen tests were conducted but Marfatia was unhappy with all of them. The director first saw Vijju, the boy who plays Birju, trying to hide behind someone at a marketplace in Pushkar. When Vijju started to run away from him, Marfatia chased him down to his house and met his family who reluctantly agreed to let their four-and-a-half year old act in the film.

"Pushkar was my biggest inspiration," the director says. "I saw it morph into its current shape. It is hard to pin the place down --- it is a holy place where a Salvodor Dali boutique and the only Lord Brahma temple coexist. The whole town is vegetarian and has a variety of cafés like the Pink Floyd Café. Here, traditional Hindus live with marijuana worshipping foreigners. The camera works as a thread throughout the film."

The entire unit of 17 people stayed at Marfatia's home. The film was completed in a week. He went back to San Francisco for his next semester and returned to India in the summer to finish post-production.

The recognition that this Marwari film which lasts 14 minutes and ten seconds has received is sweet success for the young filmmaker. Currently in his second year of the MFA programme, Marfatia also teaches a film production class at San Francisco State University. He has also begun scripting for his next project which he promises will be a full-length feature.