Kathi, Kathi, Kaarana

Directed By Anita, Balaji, Chandrashree, Deepa, Nishita, Preeti, Shanmugam, Suhas, Umesh, Vinod facilitated by Varun Kurtkoti

A sanitation worker dreams of becoming a lawyer to fight for her and her fellow workers’ rights; a mother dreams of sharing her secrets and struggles with her child; a woman rehearses to prepare for a difficult conversation with her boyfriend…

Kathi, Kathi, Kaarana is an anthology of ‘true fiction’, narrated and produced by the workers and their families from the city of Bangalore. ‘Workers will only know how to process the world if we get to do anything other than work,’ one participant shares.  Likewise, the film explores mental wellbeing as a factor of the power to share and shape our own narratives. What does it mean to be able to rehearse, dream and creatively explore our struggles? What does it take to have a home, and manage it? How to share feelings that cannot be said, otherwise? 

The film marks the culmination of weekend film school for informal sector workers of Bangalore, that artist Varun Kurtkoti designed and facilitated in monsoon 2022. The school ran for 3 months, and engaged the learners in learning filmmaking skills and methods, and scripting narratives based on lived and dreamt experiences.