Filmmaker Nidhi Saxena says through her new film "Secret of a Mountain Serpent", which had its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival, she wanted to explore women's desire and how there is a certain guilt associated with it.
Set in a Himalayan town against the backdrop of the Kargil War, the film explores the life of Barkha, played by Trimala Adhikari, and the other women who are left behind as most of the men are gone. Barkha ultimately finds herself drawn to Manik Guho, a mysterious outsider played by Adil Hussain. Throughout the film, the local legend of a serpent who still waits for the promise of a love unkept, comes to life.
"I feel that it's important to talk about women's desire. I haven't seen many women allow themselves to be in love. When it comes to sacrificing something, love is the first thing women sacrifice like it's the most unimportant thing.
"Like, they are not allowed to desire. And if they allow themselves to desire something, especially sexually, and emotionally, then it's a sin with guilt associated with it which is what I grew up seeing even in my school friends," Saxena told PTI in a virtual interview from Venice.
The filmmaker, a Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) graduate, debuted with her acclaimed 2024 film "Sad Letters of an Imaginary Woman". "Secret of a Mountain Serpent" fuses magic realism and folklore to tell the story of its protagonist, who has refused to surrender to her loneliness, the director said. "My protagonist feels why should she sacrifice herself for someone who is absent? She has waited for long, but then she let herself go with the flow of her desire and I feel it's a very brave thing to do. Women who long and wait are always put on a pedestal. But my protagonist takes charge of her desire and allows herself to fall in love again," she said.
Ultimately, the film is about the desire to be free and to not be bound by societal expectations of morality which Saxena calls the "ultimate desire".
"Love should not know boundaries, the limitation of social burden or morality made up by society. Usually people tell us, even on TV, what to desire and how to desire. So what will the ultimate desire be? I thought maybe it's freedom. So for me, the film is like freedom to desire and desire for freedom." Saxena started working on the movie right after she won Busan Asian Cinema Fund for her 2024 film "Sad Letter of an Imaginary Woman" at the Busan Film Festival. That film also revolved around loneliness..
The filmmaker said "Secret of a Mountain Serpent" was informed by her years spent living in the mountains though she primarily grew up in Jaipur.
"I was inspired to write this film while I was living in Almora and Kausani. I have seen a lot of men from the mountains migrate for work. And most of them are in the Army and it's normalized in mountains that husbands go away for work and women are left behind. There is an inherited loneliness in the mountains itself," she said.
Saxena said she chose to weave a touch of magic realism in her story as she is inspired by her favourite writers Gabriel García Márquez, Juan Rulfo, Hiraki Murakami and Vinod Kumar Shukla.
She has also incorporated the folklore around serpents as she believes they are another symbol of desire.
"In countries like South Africa, Spain and even India, snakes are always associated with desire. So I knew my symbol had to be something ancient so I created a snake, and it's related to sexual desires. This film is filled with symbolism." "Secret of a Mountain Serpent" also stars Pushpendra Singh, Richa Meena, Aaradhya Mehta, Rashmi Kandpal, Paru Upreti and Heeraballabh Kandpal alongside locals and non-actors of the region.
The film is co-produced by Forest Flower Films, the banner of Cannes Camera d’Or winner Vimukthi Jayasundara and Richa Chadha and Ali Fazal's Pushing Buttons studios.
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