Science fiction in Dandeli

‘Rani Rani Rani’ is an ambitious indie film helmed by an ad director who explores the time loop device

With the commercial film industry tied down with concerns of appealing to the lowest common denominator, independent filmmakers have always aspired for the more sophisticated sort of cinema.

Rajaram Rajendran falls in this proud tradition, and his latest film ‘Rani Rani Rani’ using the time loop device, which although beloved of OTT platforms, hasn’t forayed into India much.

The film tells the story of a villager played by the Parched-fame Tannishtha Chatterjee, who becomes part of a bleak scientific project in which she is sent back in time.

This creates a situation where is more than one Rani at a given point in time. The multiple Ranis are what gives the film its title.

The film came from limitations, the filmmaker says. “The film came from limitations. I didn’t have the budget to make a long family story or anything like that. We had to do with as few people as possible. We shot the whole thing in under 12 days. It’s about a rural woman who gets stuck in a time loop, but doesn’t understand head or tail of it. But she is street smart, so she figures out whatever she can,” Rajaram says.

Although made with a shoe-string budget, the film stands out for the uninitiated moviegoer with an impressive cast. Rajaram, who was impressed by Tannishtha Chatterjee’s work, wanted to get her on board. One she joined the team, the big names like Asif Basra and Alexx O’Nell came in.

What drew most of them in was the script, which he says was inspired by a smaller sort of science fiction movies like the 2009 Duncan Jones directorial ‘The Moon’, as opposed to the Michael Bay and Marvel movies, which splurged money on computer graphics.

When asked what sets ‘Rani Rani Rani’ apart since the time loop is an overused device, Rajaram says, “We shot ‘Rani Rani Rani’ as a drama. There is no scientific explanation or a professor going on about what will happen. Even with the camera language and everything, we shot it like a suspense drama. Very old school lensing. We actually used 35-year-old anamorphic lenses. It was shot like a late 90s, early 2000s drama. That was the idea — to have simple, clean story-telling.”

One gets the idea while talking to Rajaram that he is not expecting the film to go on to become what is called a blockbuster.

Profits are welcome, of course, but he expects the film to do well mostly in multiplexes and OTT platforms. Which makes sense, as one of the his actors told Showtime that Rajaram had to sit beside him with pencil and paper to explain the science of the film.

The shoot took place in Dandeli, where the crew conviently found an abandoned factory, which with some cosmetic makeover, looked dystopian enough.

“When we shot it, it was actually lush green. But we changed all the lush-green in post-production because it looked too green and it looked too pleasant for it to be in a suspense movie.

Because you could watch that and you wouldn’t feel there is a problem. It looked too nice,” he says.

Rajaram’s actors have nothing but praise for him, although this is his debut movie and he has only made commercials so far.

Asif Basra said he was drawn to the movie because Rajaram was taking a risk and things won’t move ahead if young people don’t take risks.

“Look at what is happening in the country. We are chewing on the past. Actually, we should be going ahead and moving ahead. The country is being held to ransom. I like to forget that and look at the future — look ahead. And the youth is the answer. That’s the reason I support Rajaram,” he says.

The most acclaimed actor on the set was Tannishtha, whom the camera follows around for most of the film. She is a familiar face to arthouse audiences in the country. Although a city-bred girl, she always shone best as a rural woman.

She joked that what she loved best about the film was that she got to shoot in Dandeli.

But no one was as excited — not even Rajaram — about the film as Alexx O’Nell, the American-born actor who is best known for his work in India. South Indians may know him best for playing a Portugese coloniser in the Santhosh Shivan-directed ‘Urumi’ (2011).

He said that what is special about small-budget films like ‘Rani Rani Rani’ is that they don’t have enough money or time, so everything was planned to the most-minute detail.

Calling Rajaram a visionary, Alexx thinks audiences are going to be thinking about the film “from the moment they walk out for the rest of their lives”.