Speechless: A Short Film That Will Indeed Leave You Speechless

2 Replies to “Speechless: A Short Film That Will Indeed Leave You Speechless”

1. Dear Director Sri Kekare,

   Thank you for your willingness to incorporate input from the Deaf Community in future productions you might be involved in.

   You must be aware from the postings on Postmasters’ Facebook page and from your talks with Ms. Arathy Manoharan that the Indian Deaf community is very upset at the liberties you took with their mother tongue and the use of hearing actors instead of Deaf actors in your short-film ‘Speechless’.

   No, we are not overreacting. Just imagine if you had made a similar short film with focus on, say, Tamil-speaking people. Would you have used Punjabi actors speaking broken Tamil with Punjabi vocabulary interspersed here and there? Can you imagine the horrific reaction of the Tamilian population? This is just to illustrate the furor that the short film had caused among the Deaf people in India and other countries. However, this was an honest mistake and we forgive that. Your sincerity in involving Deaf people in the future is much appreciated.

   Here are our suggestions:

   1. Contact local Deaf club or organizations and learn about them and also find out possible deaf persons to act in the film.

   2. If there are none, contact the National Association of the Deaf ([email protected]) for information about Deaf culture, ISL and Deaf actors.

   3. Contact professionals in the field such as Islam Ul Haque ([email protected]) and Dr. Surinder Randhawa ([email protected]) on queries related to Deaf people and Indian Sign Language.

   We will be more than happy to collaborate with you and provide any kind of support you need.

   Thank you very much for your willingness to work with us.

   Sincerely,
   Sagar Kothari
   Arathy Manoharan

   1. Here’s the reply from Mr. Shrikant Kekare and I totally agree with his comments…
      I appreciate he taking the time to reply to this objection of yours..
      Thanks for sharing the film on your blog. I understand your concern about the adverse comment. But, on the contrary, I have received atleast 200 msgs from people those can not hear and speak, and even few institutions those look after training and empowerment of Deaf and Mute community, all praising the film. and I have never received a single adverse comment from any of those, except from these two people.

      I don’t understand their agitation.
      1. Have I portrayed both the characters in Pitiful condition? – No
      2. Have I shown them in bad light, like say criminal? – No
      3. Have I abused them anyway? – No
      4. Am I mocking at them? – No

      At the same time
      1. Aren’t they adorable? – Yes
      2. Aren’t they shown confident? – Yes
      3. Aren’t they shown doing good in their lives? – Yes

      Then what is this cry for?

      Unfortunately, some people get offended just by anything, just because they are made representatives to ensure the rights. They have made many phone calls to me, but they never sent any e-mail or letter. They have not even told me clearly what do they want/expect from me.

      Copy pasting this msg on each blog share of this film is beyond my comprehension. It seems from their letter that though I am not apologetic, yet they have forgiven me.

      Their first issue was the fabricated sign language, to which I replied that there is a disclaimer at the end already, which clearly says that the sign language is not authentic and creative liberty has been taken. Further, that we do not want to hurt anyone’s sentiments. Still they seems to be not satisfied. What should I do? Stand upside down on my head out of their office?

      There are thousands of instances when a South Indian character is shown as a skewed person in films for example Mehmood and Johny Lever have played many such ‘madrasi/hyderabadi’ characters. If you ask, most punjabis will vouch that the Punjabi speaking characters never speak proper punjabi. But I have never seen anyone holding collar of a director or producer.

      Now they have added another clause that I should have used deaf actors and should have taken help from some deaf community while making this film. They don’t know that film was scripted and delivered in 48 hours falling on Saturday and Sunday. There was no way I could have done that. Still if these guys want to go to court/legal action, let them.

      Secondly, this film is made in Zero budget everyone volunteering their services, and so far I have not made a single penny out of film. However, many telecom companies want to buy the film, which means film will have logo of some telecom company, saying their 3G services made this communication possible. In turn, I will have to take it down across yourtube/facebook etc.

      Since I want more people to watch it for its purity of emotion, I chose not to earn anything that way. So, If I hire some professional from their institute for supervision, who is going to pay for his fees, conveyance etc? If it is forcibly shoved down film maker’s throat, it looks like extortion.

      Lastly, I am a film maker. I do not make same film, on same story, or same idea again and again. It is quite possible that I may end up not making film on Deaf and Mute characters ever. But if I happen to do so, I will be glad to use some professional guidance if the situation permits. Which film maker doesn’t want more authenticity in film?

      Anyway, thanks once again for your concerns and I am sorry that you were bothered for this without having any involvement in film making.

Comments are closed.