Island City began as three stories that filmmaker Ruchika Oberoi was planning to turn into separate short films. “They touched upon the modern work culture, gender dynamics, the new freedoms as well as newer ways of oppression that we have been getting caught in,” says Ruchika. So slowly, connections between the three began to emerge. Ruchika could see that they were all about Mumbai and about the dilemmas of contemporary times. They were about individual rebellions and the happy and not-so-happy consequences of these mini mutinies. “They were all talking about the same issues from different perspectives,” she says. The reason why she thought it would be an interesting experiment to thread them together into one film. The script participated in the National Film Development Corporation’s Screenwriters’ Lab 2012 and was eventually produced by NFDC itself.
Premiered at Venice, where it won the Fedora award for best debut director, Island City has since been busy travelling to festivals across the globe—from Warsaw to Cairo, Mumbai to Dharamshala.
The first story in the triptych is about a man who wins the office ‘Fun Committee Award’, which entitles him to a whole day of fun. Completing these fun modules is mandatory. The story is all about how office cubicles turn us into automated beings doing unthinking work day after day. The second story deals with a family’s sweet revolt against the domineering head (who, incidentally, is on life support) that is brought about by something as banal as bringing a banned television set home. But what will happen to the box when the father returns? The third story is about the mechanical life of a young woman who finds some moments of respite when she receives an empathetic, anonymous letter. Will it help her overcome the disconnect she is stuck in?
The first two stories are underlined with humour, one has a futuristic, farcical touch, the other comes replete with dark humour. “It goes towards a surreal, strange, horrifying end,” says Ruchika, a finale that she was afraid audiences wouldn’t be able to connect to. But it’s this story that has the most massy appeal. FTII graduate Ruchika grew up in Dhanbad and Delhi but moved to Mumbai after graduation. The film emerged from her own experience — “of living alone, of the commute, of the industrial spaces, the industrial life”—in Mumbai. But 20 years later, Mumbai is her home.
“The city is alienating as well as accepting. There is a certain liberation it offers, especially to women, which you only get aware of when you experience other cities.”
