Interview | Srishti Lakhera opens up on how Ek Tha Gaon took shape: ‘There was a lot of this feeling of abandonment’

SRishti Lakhera's Ek Tha Gaon is a meditative and deep moving calculate of the rural depopulation in the Himalayan hamlet of Semla, Uttarakhand. The infotainment is infused in the first place with the energy and vitality of Leela Devi, an 80-year-old woman, who is one of the seven remaining inhabitants of an abandoned village. As she ruminates about her life in the village, Ek Tha Gaon presents a powerful story about migration, alienation, and persistence.The film went on to win two National Awards in the Non-feature film category, for Best Film and Best Audiography. Ahead of the film's premiere on Mubi India, HT caught up with the filmmaker for an exclusive chat. Lakhera opened up about the seed for the story, how the journey shaped and transformed her idea of the land and its inhabitants, and more. (Excerpts)How Ek Tha Gaon took shapeThe filmmaker shares a personal connection to the village where the film is set. “My father grew up in this village,” she begins. “For his education and his job, he also moved out. To Rishikesh, where I grew up. Our village is around 5 hours away in Rishikesh, but when I was growing up, it was much further away. We didn't have a road back then. We would visit for some weddings or funerals. As I was growing up, the village was growing emptier. Around 2014-15, when I had become a filmmaker. I would hear stories from my father about the village, tinted with nostalgia, about so many people leaving the village. That made me go back to the village in search of a story, and that's when I met Leela Devi.”She adds, “I hadn't heard about her before, and instantly, she was magical to me. I wanted to spend more time with her. She brought a very different world from the village I was supposed to belong to. That insight from her led me to the core of the film, which I wanted to make.”The visuals of the film are rich with vast, empty spaces of land. Lakhera permits the frame to remain and grasp the impracticality of life in this village, which is devoid of basic facilities and growth. “Unfortunately, there was a lot of this feeling of abandonment. Of people, of the agriculture system, of the livelihood. The people I worked with, there was a very clear sense that they felt abandoned. So automatically it reflected on the camera,” Lakhera says.“I went into the film from my father's lens of nostalgia, and personally, I was interested in the environment. I was living in Delhi, and the disconnect a person experiences when they come from a small town and then live in a big city… where one doesn't really want to leave, but my small town does not have the opportunities and options. There was that going on for me,” she explains.But there is no one way of looking at this scenario, the space. The filmmaker stresses this concept and adds, “When I came in, there was an intersectionality of gender, class, caste, and environment. It works together, and it cannot be seen in isolation. I realised that if I want to tell this story, I think that in our society, it is so interconnected, where one cannot look at the environment without looking at people's status and how they are connected to that environment. How their voices are heard, or silenced. What are they bringing to the table? What I discovered while working with the men and women is that I was previously unaware of their existence through my father's story. Especially Leela Devi, who is such a fiesty, beautiful woman. How come no one told me that she lives there alone? I was surprised.""So yes, environment, but also how it is interconnected to who is able to own it? Who is able to dispose of it so easily? Who has the say? As a woman, as a Dalit man? How to take care of it? Their relationship to the land is obviously going to depend on their power. There is an intersectionality, and I feel it is very clear to me that I want to examine it and explore the history of these communities,” she says.Have everyone who features in the film seen Ek Tha Gaon? Lakhera nods with a smile and adds, “Even their relatives and the families. They were overjoyed to learn that it had won the National Award; it was a source of pride for the people of Uttarakhand. Leela Devi is no more, but she does not watch the screen. I cannot make her watch a screen! (smiles) Her daughter has seen the film, but Leela Devi belongs to a time when she didn't even have a mirror! So she never even looked at her own image! Her relationship to image-making is very different to what we have in current times. She was just very happy to have me as a friend, so that's the kind of relationship we had.”On winning the National Award“In my region, the people have been really supportive,” she says. “I am talking about individuals. All of us have an artist in us, but unfortunately, in our economies, in the kind of support we receive, most of us cannot afford to be artists. So many people reach out to me continously, for advice, a lot of filmmakers who are writing their scripts, and also receiving support from artists themselves who have given their love… those connections have come a lot for me.”I ask her about her filmmaking influences, and she says,“This film was a film school for me. It taught me a lot. It allowed me to make my mistakes, run with it, and I was able to make a language that is my own. However, if I must discuss influences, one film that is very close to my heart is The Gleaners and I, by Agnès Varda. She is such a beautiful filmmaker, and that is such a beautiful film, and I feel it had some indirect influence on Ek Tha Gaon in some way.” Ek Tha Gaon premiered on Mubi India on December 31.