MALAYSIANSKINI | There was no exact moment or film that made award-winning director Shanjhey Kumar Perumal choose his calling. It was just something he wanted to do since he was 14 years old.
“I remember my teacher asking the class what they want to do when they grow up. All my other friends were saying doctors, engineers, lawyers, and teachers. I simply wanted to say something else to sound different from them.
“So I said I want to become a filmmaker. And then the whole class looked at me and went ‘wow’. I liked the attention,” he told Malaysiakini during an interview.
Shanjhey associated filmmaking with fame and fortune not knowing that it would be a tough road ahead. Determined to make films, he applied and got a place at Universiti Sains Malaysia where he studied film and television.
However, it was his passion and perseverance after years of toil in the industry that led to making the celebrated Malaysian Tamil film Jagat (2016).
Now 43, he is back with his latest Tamil film Fire On Water (Neer Mel Neruppu) which will premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) in the Netherlands. The festival runs from Jan 25 to Feb 4.
Coming full circle
It is full circle for Shanjhey as his short film Thaipoosam premiered at the festival 18 years ago in 2006.
“IFFR was the first ever international film festival that I’ve attended physically. It changed my perspective and cinematic direction. So it’s very sentimental for me, going back to Rotterdam again after 18 years,” he explained.
There is a big gap between Jagat and Fire On Water but he said he had been busy working on no less than four scripts.
Some plans had to be put on hold because of the pandemic but he has a film in post-production with the working title “Macai”, although it will be released internationally as “The Serpent and The Saviour”.
His breakthrough Jagat (slang derived from the Malay word for wicked - jahat) was a gritty film that followed a mischievous 12-year-old boy named Appoy drawn to his uncle’s life of crime even though his father wanted him to focus on school.
The film won the Best Malaysian Film award at the 28th Malaysia Film Festival 2016 and Shanjhey won the award for Best Director.
He won even though some parties wanted to create a separate category from Malaysian films not in Bahasa Malaysia, and he is still grateful for the overwhelming support for Jagat (and also sports flick Ola Bola) within the industry to compete alongside other local films in the Best Malaysian Film category.
Mixing satire and romance
This latest movie Fire On Water is about a disgruntled assistant on commercial productions, who wants to make his film but is left without industry backers.
In pursuit of his dream, he loses his love and sinks into alcoholism, until he meets a kindred spirit adrift in the world.
While Fire On Water sounds like it will have more mainstream appeal, Shanjhey said that like Jagat, he considers it to be on the border between mainstream and independent cinema.
“If I did not want to release it in cinemas and only screen it at festivals, I would have made Jagat grittier. So, apart from sending your film to festivals, you cannot neglect the local audience.
“That is why Jagat was released in the cinemas and we spent around RM150,000 just for the marketing alone. You can still call it mainstream cinema.”
On Fire On Water, Shanjhey explained, “I didn’t want to tell the same story again. As a filmmaker, I want to experiment. This movie is different because this is a satirical romantic drama. I have no idea whether something like this has been done in Malaysia.”
He said the story of Fire On Water was something that was created organically, and originally written more than a decade ago, with an initial synopsis in 2010 put aside.
After Jagat’s success, he wanted to pursue other projects but his producer suggested he revisit Fire On Water.
“I asked him if he thought this story was going to work. He said it’s a story that must be told.
“I was trying to experiment and put things together. This is a romantic drama but at the same time, it talks about the film industry and the psyche of the people here.”
When certain Covid-19 lockdowns were lifted, the movie went into production.
Pro actors this time around
Unlike its predecessor which relied on a cast of unknowns, Fire On Water features professional actors.
“Before Jagat, I was in the industry for 14 to 15 years. So people in the industry knew me, they knew my work, and they wanted to work with me.
“But it was my conscious decision to not use professional actors for that film. I wanted to work with non-actors.”
While Jagat drew some elements from Shanjhey’s childhood living in a squatter area, Fire on Water has parallels to his journey as a filmmaker.
Indeed, he refers to it as autofiction, a work of fiction with elements of truth. He said people need to watch the movie to figure out which parts happened to him.
Some directors faced issues getting their films released without cuts by the censors. He said the only reason he was asked to make cuts was to get a more general cinema classification.
With so many filmmakers getting accolades in the festival circuit, Shanjhey said it will have an impact on the local film industry.
However, he pointed out that while some did well at highly regarded festivals that cast a spotlight on our local film industry, others tout victories at not-so-esteemed festivals.
Media practitioners need to check on the legitimacy of these festivals before highlighting the wins, he said.
Right now Shanjhey is busy screening his latest work, and hopeful of a positive reception at the IFFR and with audiences at home. - Mkini
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