Paranormal in portrayal!

A family without a man to helm responsibility during the freedom struggle start experiencing paranormal incidents when a boy enters their household. The lady of the house wants to stop these supernatural occurrences but has to fend the attacks of the British. So what happens? If you are curious enough to know the answer, wait till next week for Yashogathe’s release — April 22. The director and protagonist share their experience with Bengaluru Chronicle on how this fiction laced with horror began.

“We were shooting for a documentary on extrasensory perception) in 2006. That was when I chanced upon an interesting old lady in Kuppam, who narrated something about her past life, which was mysterious. With no evidence to her claim, she said she was a freedom fighter in her past life. I was quite taken in by her story, and excited. I took the crux of the woman’s tale and webbed a screenplay around it,” says director Vinod J Raj.    

What was challenging, was to recreate a 1945-era, especially when the entire film is inside a house. For Manasa Joshi, a trained Kathak dancer who has had a successful year so far with Last Bus, and Kiragoorina Gayyaligalu doing well at the box office, it was a culmination of many wishes, “It was the best decision I have taken in my life — acting in Yashogathe.

A periodic film set in the mid-40’s and being given the role of the protagonist was an amazing experience. Our freedom struggle was during an era with no communication, with even letters taking months to reach. I play a strong character fighting and protecting my family against the British amidst paranormal activities.”

Almost every film maker uses strange phenomenon as a marketing gimmick, to glorify horror experiences, thankfully, for Yashogathe, it was the other way around. “We rented a 120 year old house in the interiors. We did not have any strange experiences, which many crews boast about! We renovated the house according to our requirements with a go- ahead from the owner. There were many snakes around the house but no one was harmed,” says the director, who feels that the house did help them shoot, even adding that sometimes they saw something unusual whenever they sat outside the house around a camp fire.

For her character Triveni, Manasa says, she had to chose between two things, “The character is very close to me as a person in real life. At times, I would face similar challenges, whether to perform a dance in the presence of a Governor or to choose the shoot of an important film. Life has been good, so far with great opportunities to work with directors who have immense passion for films.” The film is very un-Sandalwood-like in tradition, is a  mix of two genres and is an experimental film that she hopes will be well received.